


Moments Told and Untold

by Montreat11



Series: Moments Series [8]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-03-30 12:52:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 62
Words: 135,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3937486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Montreat11/pseuds/Montreat11
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's strange just how fast "Happily Ever After" can simply become "The Bitter End". 7th in the Moments Series. Belle's perspective on everything that happens from the moment she and Rumpelstiltskin and married until she banishes him from town. R/R.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning of Happily Ever After

Her husband.

It was a lot to comprehend.

She was married. She was a wife. His wife!

And he was  _her_  husband. And she was kissing him!

Their arms were wrapped around one another, holding on as tight as possible, clinging to this one small piece of perfection in their constant chaotic world. It was easy to imagine that they were the only two people in the world right now. To forget Archie's presence, to forget that her father was watching her kiss him just over her shoulder. She never thought she'd have a moment like this, never in a million years thought she'd be this happy to be married or that it would feel this good and right! She couldn't wait to see where this marriage took them, where this happy ending led them.

But then it was over, ended by a simple throat clearing. "You  _are_  supposed to wait to do that until I say so," Archie muttered into the silence. It was so easy to forget they were there that she had, but with the pronouncement she pulled away allowing herself to remember. Still, she just couldn't stop looking at him, couldn't stop her smile, or her blush as they exchanged a glance that told her he knew exactly what she was thinking and he agreed with her.

"We've waited long enough," he muttered, never once taking his eyes off of her, his thumb tracing over her cheek tenderly. He was right, they had waited long enough for this moment, and there was really no need to hold back now. So she reached up, tangled her fingers in his hair and kissed him again. He didn't resist.

"Well…I think we'll leave you two alone, then," Archie finally stammered after a moment. She managed to break away once more at the comment. Alone. Perfect.

"Thank you Archie," she managed to whisper from where they stood. Archie nodded, offered a happy smile for her, which she wasn't sure Rumpelstiltskin returned or not, then reached out a hand for her father, a silent command to follow.

"Take care of her," her father croaked out with far more emotion than she'd ever expected him to have. "She's all I have left."

She could feel him try to speak, the way his chest took in air and his jaw dropped just a little, but she was quick to answer for him, stating simply "he already does" and squeeze him a little tighter against her so he wouldn't have to answer that. It was an uneasy truce that she knew the two of them would have. Rumpelstiltskin still wasn't happy with him. He had a number of grievances against the man for what she was sure he would consider not taking care of her properly in her youth and here in Storybrooke. And likewise, her father wasn't happy she was marrying him, he was happy she was happy. So for now, until they both had some time to sit with the idea that they were related, she'd be all too happy to stand between them and offer what little help she could. And in the meantime…

Her father left, followed after Archie down the hill and left her standing there in the chilly night air with her husband. He drew her back almost immediately, with a happy smile that told her just how ecstatic he was about all of this. She didn't need words to tell him how happy he'd made her, she just needed to kiss him back, and pull away from him for nothing but a breath of air before kissing him again! This was heavenly!

She lost track of how long they stood by that well, she just couldn't bring herself to care, and when he finally pulled away, when the sound of footsteps and car engines had faded into the distance, she knew that they were alone and allowed herself to rest her head happily against his shoulder content to just let him hold her in his arms…her husband's arms. She felt like she'd waited forever for this, like her whole life had led up to this very moment. It was what happy endings were made of!

"You know I would take you to Paris if I could," he whispered in her ear, "around the world or anywhere you wished to go."

She sighed. The parameters of the new curse…she honestly had no idea if they could leave town! Obviously they  _could_ leave, now there would be no monkeys to snatch the pair of them away, but whether or not she'd loose her memories again, she didn't know if Regina and Snow had taken that into account when casting the curse. She'd be sure to ask them soon…but not tonight. As lovely as the idea of seeing everything this realm had to offer was, it simply wasn't important as just spending some time alone with the man she'd barely seen over the last year. So long as they were together, she didn't care where they went. And when they finally emerged? The world outside of Storybrooke would still be there.

"Someday you will," she whispered back. "If we can cross worlds then someday we'll cross the town line together. But for now I'll settle for home." And bed. Their home. Their bed. Together. Husband and wife. A proper marriage bed. And it was going to be so much different than the wedding night she'd grown up fearing. It was going to be beautiful. It was going to be-

"Oh, now don't sell yourself that short, Sweetheart," he whispered after a moment. She picked her head up and looked him over at the odd suggestion. What was that supposed to mean? How was she selling herself short? He only smiled knowingly, her confusion perfectly pleasing to him. "Come with me," he muttered, and with a wave of his hand the candles on the well were extinguished and gone, she tucked her hand into his arm, and followed him back through the forest to the place that she'd seen his car parked. She needed help again, but he was there steadying her, ready to catch her should she fall.

Finally they reached the bottom and she slid into the car. He followed after her and happily let her clutch his arm, neither willing to break the contact that they had at the moment. It would have felt wrong to. He drove them not to the house but deeper into the forest. She was still confused, but tried not to figure it out, just laid her head against his shoulder, closed her eyes, and prepared to be surprised by whatever he had in mind. So long as they were alone and together he could use his magic to send them to the moon and she'd be happy.

No. It was better than the moon. When she felt the car roll to a stop and heard him put it in park she opened her eyes to the most simple, beautiful sight. "The cabin!" she beamed, happy to see it again. She should have guessed, they'd been meaning to come for what felt like an eternity, but hadn't because silly things like curses and kidnappings and death kept interfering. But they finally had the time. In fact, they finally had not just an excuse, but the perfect excuse to come up here. It was their wedding night after all.

"Is it alright?" he questioned seriously. "Of course, we could go home if you prefer."

She only smiled and shook her head at the suggestion because it was ridiculous notion. The cabin was perfect for this night. So she got out of the car and was happy to hear him follow after her as always, even happier to have him unlock the door and usher her inside.

She was happy to be here. Thrilled really. There was already a fire in the grate, making it too hot for Ruby's coat and hat. She didn't care that her shirt was mesh or that he would be able to see straight through it. What hadn't he seen already? What wouldn't he see tonight? Besides, this occasion called for something more, something special. They had a fire, they had privacy, all they needed now was a bit of wine to celebrate and she knew he had some stashed away up here somewhere…or right in front of her. It was a small cabin, but she remembered the little door that hid the small kitchen area and found that the cabinets were stocked! Completely full! So was the refrigerator! Obviously he wasn't planning on this being a short one night trip, she was glad but tried to hide her surprise by pulling out a couple of long stemmed glasses and pouring the wine.

"The kitchen is full," she commented, noting that he was still staring at her as he had when he'd first seen her. "How long do you intend for us to stay?" she questioned, handing him his glass. He stared at it but didn't drink.

"More than a day," he assured her. She felt her smile vanish as her happy mood suddenly dissipated. They'd talked about having more than one day with each other before. Last time they'd talked about that, they'd barely gotten twenty four hours before he'd…died.

The last time it had taken them less than twenty-four hours for their world to turn upside-down. She never wanted that to happen again, but history told her that in about thirteen minutes someone would knock on the front door and tell them they had to leave to fight some new threat she'd never heard of!

"Can you guarantee that?" she asked sadly. "Can you promise that the world won't turn on its head in the next few hours and we won't be separated again?"

His own face fell at her comment. He didn't want it to be true, but he knew her question had validity. And he hated it just as much as she did. "I don't make deals I can't keep," he told her, but before she could respond to that depressing fact he reached down and took the wine glass she was holding out of her hands. He set the untouched glasses on the counter then reached into his pocket pulled out his cell phone and turned it off. Suddenly he turned back to her and extended his hand. He wanted hers as well. So she happily reached into her bag, ignoring the dagger, and returned the gift he'd given her so long ago. He turned it off and set it beside his own on the counter.

"We are the only two people in the world that know we're up here," he informed her moving around her to the windows. One by one he drew the shades down and shut the curtains tight over them to keep even the morning light out. "I can't guarantee that we won't be found," he apologized, moving to the door, shutting the curtains over the window then locking it. "But I can guarantee that we've taken every possible precaution to be alone and undisturbed. And you…" he turned back to her and his jaw dropped. He stared at her again, with that same look that he'd given her when he'd first seen her over the hill. He looked like he was mesmerized by her and it made her blush.

"You are the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my very long life," he breathed after a moment. She felt herself blush as he stepped forward and placed his hand against her neck smiling again. It took a moment to sink in, to really think about it again and let her thoughts overwhelm her once more as they had on that hill. He was her husband. They were married now. And she just wanted to be with him now before all hell inevitably broke loose again. Why were they wasting time?

She reached up and clutched his scarf tight in her fingers, drawing him closer to her. "I don't think you realize," she whispered, "how truly handsome you are." And before he could argue or complain she kissed him again, finally happy when he kissed her back.

The cabin was perfect. She didn't know how perfect until he gave her hand a small tug and pulled her into the bedroom explaining that he only wanted to give her the night she deserved. She gasped when she opened the door to what he'd done.

There were lit candles spread over every available surface, the dresser, their night stands, even the window ledges. Bundles of roses were blooming in vases beside them, making the room smell beautiful and fragrant. And then there was the bed. It was already turned down and had new red and white sheets over it. Somehow he'd managed to make a simple cabin bedroom the loveliest place in the world. And it all paled in comparison to the fact that she was here with him.

She turned around, stood on tip toe, and threw her arms around him, burying her face against his neck to fight off tears because this day had just been too overwhelming for her to take anymore. She felt too lucky to be human or to have a chance at this life, that after a year of living in a hellish reality this was what she'd made it to. He held her tight, moving his hands over her back, and melting against her in relief. Relief. Did he really think that she wouldn't like this?

"I love you, Belle," he whispered.

"And I love you, too," she responded predictably, knowing that she was going to say it a million times tonight and a million more for the rest of their lives. But she didn't always need words to tell him. Tonight wouldn't require words. Most nights they shared didn't require words. Why would their wedding night be any different?

It was late. But the night felt young. Small kisses gave way to tender and passionate embraces. Simple touches became soft caresses while sighs gave way to gasps and moans. It was a familiar feeling, one that she treasured and cherished ever since they'd first experienced this together what felt like ages ago. This was the wedding night she'd never dreamed of as a child because it was perfect, because she felt happy, because she loved the man she was sharing it with and needed him more than food or light or air! Maybe that was why they both ended up gasping for breath when they were finished. When they could have each other, other things like breathing all seemed unimportant.

He didn't rest against her chest this time, didn't let her hold him like he had the night before. Instead he rolled to the side, reclining on his back as he smiled, pulling her with him. She shifted on top of him, made herself comfortable against him, and rested her head against his heart, listening to it beat against her cheek. It was wonderful sound, a wonderful feeling! It was just like any other normal night they might have experienced only now…everything had changed.

"You are my world now," he muttered moving his hands over her bare back and into her hair. "Sun, moon, and stars, all pale in comparison to you, and I will love you until the day that I die. That is my promise to you."

Promise or not, the words were meant to be romantic…but they just couldn't be. They were simply another reminder of something she didn't want to think about today, a reminder of something, a feeling, she could have lived a hundred life times without feeling. "You already did," she informed him sadly. Some days it was amazing to her to think that something like that had actually happened to them, that he'd separated them the way he had and it had been an entire year that they'd been without one another. She loved him, but she would never forget what had happened, never forget how she'd spent the last year. She wasn't sure she could ever forgive him for it, or stop being angry. But she could put it in the past, especially when they had such a bright future ahead of them, so long as he understood the weight of it the same way that she did.

She quickly picked herself up on her elbow and glanced down at him, a different kind of fire suddenly burning in her chest. "And if you ever do something like that again, if you ever leave me here alone like that again, I'll bring you back and kill you myself! And don't think that I won't...I know how to do that now," she warned. She wouldn't of course, he knew that just as well as she did. No matter what, just like last time she'd go to the ends of the earth to bring him back to her again. But she knew from the look on his face that she'd made her point. She just couldn't go through that again! It wasn't fair.

At her words he nodded without a hint of a smile or smirk on his face. "You have my word," he promised honestly, gently, drawing comfortable shapes into her back again, trying to calm her. Whether she was calm or not she lay her head against him again, running her hands over his chest and arms as she fought the urge to cry at the memories. His word was good enough for her. He didn't make deals he couldn't keep.

"You're not alone now," she reminded him. "We're together now and for always. Because you are my world as well."

"I won't forget it, Sweetheart."

Finally she felt him reach down and cover her back with the sheets and blankets, taking care of her, just as she told her father he always did, just as he had when he'd died, but before that thought could overwhelm her again something glittered on her hand in the moonlight to distract her. It was her ring…her wedding ring.

She felt a smile break over her face again as the happy memory raced in to replace the bad, reminding her that this really wasn't just an ordinary night. "Thank you for marrying me," she whispered against her husband.

"Thank you for giving me a happy ending my Darling Belle...my wife."

She smirked at the idea. "A happy ending is only the opportunity to begin a new story that can be better than the last."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! For those of you that are just checking out this fiction, welcome! For those of you who are a fan of the Moments Series, welcome back! I hope you'll enjoy this fiction. It's the 7th in the Moments Series, a series that is an attempt at an accurate portrayal of Belle's perspective during the Once Upon a Time series. This fiction features everything that happened in Storybrooke from the morning after Belle banishes Rumpelstiltskin in "Heroes and Villains" up to the moment that the Dark Curse is removed from Rumple in "Operation Mongoose". Also, side note, if you are an Exile Reader, please contact me after reading this chapter to get Exile Part IV, you'll be needing it!
> 
> Because I am working to keep this series as accurate as possible, there might be changes made to this fiction, as needed. But I won't bore you with those details, if you really want them follow me on twitter at Montreat11 to be sure to never miss an update.
> 
> If you enjoy this fiction, please leave kudos or a comment! I always enjoy those wonderful gems waiting for me in my inbox and I love writing back to thank you personally for reading! It helps me know that I'm doing a decent job! Peace and Happy Reading!


	2. A Bold Declaration

She woke up with the feeling in her stomach like she was falling. Her heart was racing, pumping adrenaline into her body so that she could prepare herself for whatever demon or curse or witch she had to face now-

It was him.

She had to face him, an old enemy that had returned in the dark of the night and appeared to hit him harder than it ever had before, returning strong enough to make him throw her from his arms and land on the other side of the mattress. It was so different than it had been before that if it weren't for that fearful look in his eye she wouldn't have recognized it.

Nightmare.

Before, he'd always just given a small jerk, been startled from sleep. This was worse. He'd flung himself up, tossed her away from him, he was hunched there on the far edge of the bed, his breathing ragged, sweat on his body, his fingers digging into the cotton of the mattress as he looked wildly around the room…as if he suspected he'd find Zelena hiding in the corner.

She knew that they'd have to expect this in some form, but she didn't know it would come now, while they were here, like this, the night of their wedding. But like it or not it was here and she knew that they could handle it. Together. "Rumple?" she questioned gently. Had this been a year ago she would have reached out for him, done her best to ease him, and get him to relax so he could go back to sleep.

But things were different now. So much had happened since last year, so much had changed. And this required delicacy. She didn't want to startle him, or crowd him unnecessarily. She could already tell that he was too tense for something like touch to work on him, she needed to work slower. "Rumpelstiltskin-"

But before she could go on he flung himself out of the bed and ran his hands through his hair, gulping down air. He didn't leave the room, just went to the window, opened it and lingered there in the frame, his head in his hands inhaling deep breath after breath of thinning night air.

Claustrophobia. Was that what had happened? Was that why he'd tossed her away and gone to the window? Had he lived in that cell so long the confines of the room were too much? The cabin? Maybe they shouldn't have come here. Maybe they should have just gone back to the house, somewhere familiar or bigger. "Rumple," she muttered, wanting him to look at her, to speak to her so that she could try and calm him down. But clearly he needed a moment, maybe he even needed something beyond words. "Rumple...Rumple, I'm just going to open the door and get you a glass of water-"

"Don't leave!" he shouted. "Don't…don't leave…please don't leave. Don't move."

She sat back down on the bed slowly, not wanting to startle him. But it didn't matter. He couldn't see her from where he was standing and he wasn't moving to look at her, he just kept looking out the window. She took a deep breath and tried to stay still, but it was pointless. She couldn't remain like this forever and she didn't want him to deal with this on his own from across the room. He needed her. This was shy they'd gotten married, why she was here!

"Rumpelstiltskin-"

"I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I'm not hurt," she responded quickly. "But…I am worried. Please come back to bed."

"I shoved you-"

"I'm not hurt and I know you didn't do it on purpose! You'd never hurt me!" she exclaimed trying to catch her breath and restrain herself because this was not the time to be having this argument again. "Please, Rumple, talk to me!" she begged. It made little difference. He was still tense. The muscles in his back tight as he struggled for breath she knew he couldn't catch on his own. "Rumple," she breathed gently, trying to calm him with her voice instead of being absolutely insistent. "Rumple, please come back to bed. Please come talk to me."

"I don't want to think about it…" he breathed, his voice tight. She nodded. She remembered how much her own nightmares had scared her, how she had wanted to pretend they weren't real. She could understand that feeling. For now.

"Then you don't have to talk about it, just…please come back to me. Rest for a while with me. Let me help you like we used to. You remember…"

He finally cast a glance over his shoulder. No, not at her, but toward her, enough to see her form but not enough to really bring her into focus and look at her. "Belle…" his weak words died there, she couldn't even begin to guess what he wanted to say but she knew what would help for him to know.

"I'm here, Rumple. It's just me. Please, come back to bed." She held her breath as she watched him, his form unmoving in the moonlight. So she moved for him. She took a little extra time to turn and collect the pillows from wherever they'd gone since he'd woken. She made sure to make noise as she stacked them against the headboards center and straightened the sheets. "Come on," she breathed finally after a few minutes, "come back to bed."

Finally, after some more quiet time had passed, after she'd fiddled, after he'd reassured himself he wasn't still in a nightmare, he stalked back to the bed and sat down slowly on the edge, his back to her as he hunched over looking defeated. She touched him then, she put her hand against his shoulder and he flinched, but didn't pull away. He just let her hands move over his back and shoulders, over and over again as she tried to ease his demons with gentle caresses. His muscles didn't soften, but after a moment he caught one of her hands on his shoulder and held it there in his tight grasp.

"Rumple?" she questioned timidly after he didn't move.

"Belle!" he turned suddenly, unexpectedly toward her. His gaze was wild, haunted, and though she didn't know what the images in his head had been, she knew exactly what to do. She reached forward and wrapped herself around him, pushed his head down into the crook of her neck, and held him tight against her. She didn't rush him, just waited patiently for his body to ease, no matter how long it took, for as long as her husband needed. "I love you Belle," she heard him mutter harshly into her neck. "I need you."

"You have me forever," she assured him, "and I love you too so please let me help you!" she begged.

Finally he nodded against her and she kissed his neck as she loosen her grip. He followed suit and let her recline against the pillows before finally crawling back into bed and fitting himself against her. They hadn't done this in a long time. Hold each other, sure they had! But comfort, comfort one another after a nightmare...it was long overdue. Until now their lives had been too complicated for silly things like nightmares to bother them. But that was then, and now...she remembered the motions, the way to ease him as if they'd only fought their nightmares yesterday, but they hadn't. It was too long since he'd let her stroke his back and hair, let himself go from being beyond tense to completely safe and secure in her arms. Her husband. She'd do this every night, every hour if that was what he required of her. Anything to get him back to feeling like himself after what he'd gone through.

It worked after a while. His limbs softened. She felt his heart quit racing. Nearly an hour later she could honestly say that he was calm again and things were back to being about as normal as they could be, though she knew he still didn't want to fall asleep. Maybe now, if she tried, they could talk about it. "Are you alright?" she asked gently.

He nodded his head against her. "I am now, thanks to you," he whispered.

"I'll always be here," she assured him. "I just want you to be mine again, happy, complete. You can tell me anything, you know that."

"I do." It wasn't an explanation, it wasn't talking about it but for now, so long as he knew that, it was just fine with her.

"Good," she smiled. Someday he'd tell her what was happening. But it didn't need to be tonight. Someday, when he was comfortable, when he was calm, when weeks or months or even years had passed she'd know what was going on, but for now she just wanted him to feel safe and relaxed again. For now she'd settle for him going to sleep. So she pushed his graying hair back off of his face and kissed the top of his head. "Rest Rumpelstiltskin. I'll be here, I'll always be here." It was a perfect way to end such a terrifying-

"Belle…" he sighed suddenly. "I have to tell you something first." Her heart pounded at the words and the tone that he'd taken with her, and she held her breath as he adjusted, out of her arms and onto his side so they could look at each other. He only did that when it was something important, definitely not something as unimportant as a nightmare. Whatever he wanted to tell her was obviously far more serious…far graver than that. What now?

"I have to tell you…Belle, I have to tell you…" but then he let out a sigh and even with the awkward position his shoulders seemed so arch forward in defeat. "I have to tell you how I love you," he muttered softly, cupping her cheek and holding her gaze again. It was…strange. Something in the back of her head questioned if that was really what he wanted to tell her but one look into his heavy tired eyes and she felt herself surrender to the words. Rumpelstiltskin, when he was in bed with her did have a tendency to say the sweetest things that surprised even her.

"I already know-"

"You don't. I love you more than anything, that you already know. But I want you to know more. I need you to know, that from this point on everything I do isn't just for me. It's for you…us! I need you to know I don't just love you. I am  _in_  love with you. I am truly in love with you in every way." She felt something like a smirk tug at the corner of her mouth, responding to the words he confided in her. Those words. This might have been better than the tale of a nightmare. "I've loved before you. Baelfire, my father, even Milah and Cora in some way. But no one has ever done for me what you do. No one has ever loved me like you do. And now I am so much in love  _I_  didn't even know it was possible to feel this strongly about anyone.

"You don't just complete me, you more than complete me. You break down my walls, and build up my weaknesses. You make my imperfections perfect, and perfections imperfect without you near. You chase away my nightmares, you calm me and you make me feel safe just by lying in your arms. No one has ever had that kind of power over me before, but I know that it lies with the right person.

"I am in love with you, by your side is where I want to be, and by your side is where I plan to be for the rest of our lives. Forever. The best thing I ever did was make that deal with you and the smartest was when I married you. You give my centuries meaning and I don't know where I'd be now if I didn't have you to guide me back home whenever I felt lost. You are my constant guiding light and without doubt the love of my very long life."

Tears filled her eyes again, but for a completely different reason. Finally, she felt herself smile, and blush. That was…more than she ever knew he was capable of. He loved her.  _And_  he was in love with her. How could she not be utterly flattered by his words? She felt the same way about him, but she didn't have the gift of putting words together nearly as flawlessly as he did. Educated as she was, she found herself tongue tied nearly every time she looked at him and speechless at just the afterthought of his declaration. Maybe that spoke for itself.

"I don't know what to say to that..." she admitted using a small puff of laughter to hold her tears in.

He smiled, and pulled her closer, kissing her forehead before settling his own against hers. "I already know," he whispered, and she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he really did.

"Can you read my mind the same way I feel like I can read yours?" she questioned, without really meaning to. It was a scary concept if he could. Having that particular gift, she always felt, made it easier to handle him, manipulate him when the Dark One held him at knife point. It made it easier for her to ease him back into bed, or tell her the truth when she knew he was lying, or even get him to agree with her over certain matters. If he had that power over her…it didn't matter. Both of them could use that particular trait for good and for bad. Even if he could, she had to trust that he'd never use it against her. Trust was the thing relationships had to be built upon. And he had hers. Completely.

"I think so sometimes. Yes," he finally answered. Her fears ebbed, they were still there but being close to him and talking as they might have before the terrible had happened pushed it aside. They held each other. They gazed. They touched and rubbed, but in a comforting intimate kind of way. His eyes were heavy, that was good, it made her happy. She didn't want to keep him up longer.

"Then you should already know that I'm thinking we both need rest," she finally commented, pulling him back into her embrace. She hoped tonight was a good omen for the rest of their life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so first things first...yes, I sent them to the cabin. Why you ask? Because I had to. I mean...they get married the night before and I assume not at 5 am the next morning and the ceremony took like...what...two minutes tops? They spend the morning at the grave and then don't arrive at the mansion until the afternoon/evening so I had to send them somewhere else first and the cabin seemed like a good place to go. Second, this chapter, this entire fiction really, gives me the opportunity to explore something that we didn't get to see on the show. A decline in Rumple. We all wanted to see how he would suffer after being captive from Zelena's captivity, this chapter shows nightmares as a side effect, but it also shows fear. Belle doesn't know what is going on but we do and we know that he means to tell her about Zelena in this chapter and looses his nerve. We know that he is already making excuses and trying to justify killing her as being for the both of them even if Belle doesn't know it. It was a good place to begin the decline and I hope that you'll agree.
> 
> Thank you to Agent66 for your comments on the last chapter and joining me on this journey. I know that it won't end well but I'm happy that you've put your faith and trust in me going forward! Peace and Happy Reading!


	3. An Even Trade

He'd fallen asleep almost as soon as she told him to, which was surprising all on it's own for her. He usually wasn't one to sleep unless there was complete rest all around him, until the house was dark, quiet, and unmoving, unless she was still and peacefully asleep beside him. But he must have been even more tired than either of them really realized, because the constant moving of her fingers through his hair and over his shoulders should have kept him awake. And yet, eventually the arms he held around her slackened, the movements of his back became gentle, and his breathing rhythmic. Even in the unrest around him he'd trusted her enough to drift off in her arms.

She nearly burst into tears when she realized what had happened. It was just so beautiful, too beautiful for even her to bear. There were only a handful of times that she could recall him actually falling asleep against her like this, but never when she was still comforting him, awake and moving beside him. She fought to contain her joy and pressed her lips against his head. She didn't say the words, for fear it might actually wake him, merely made a silent promise to her husband that she'd keep watch until the time came for him to wake. Until he was calm and had nothing but sweet dreams.

Her Husband.

Even if it had been utterly overwhelming last night it was remarkable just how quickly she'd adjusted to thinking of him like that. In fact, if she didn't know any better she would say that there had been no adjustment at all. Though she hadn't used the word, it was proof of just how long she'd been thinking of them in this way. They really had been married long before she'd had this ring on her finger. Somehow she knew, even if she didn't have it she would have continued to think of it that way. Hold him as he slept. Stand up to a witch. Journey into Dark Magic. Was there anything she wouldn't do for him?

The easy breathing he was doing against her neck suddenly ceased as he drew a deep sigh against her and his fingers flexed back into her skin. He'd only slept for an hour or so but she couldn't say she was entirely surprised. Leopards couldn't change their spots so quickly. Eventually he would have had the urge to roll over, to check on her, as she suspected he did throughout the night. But the fact that he'd been able to let his guard down for as long as he did, to trust her to hold him safe in sleep…it made her smile as she eased her grip and looked down at him.

His eyes blinked open in the moonlight and he found her own after a moment. There was a brief moment of clarity and as he seemed to realize what had happened between the two of them, before he adjusted, rolling over onto his back and pulling her against him like they always did as he got comfortable and closed his eyes again. Awake, though not enough to keep his eyes open. "I love you," he mumbled, reaching out to hold her hand and rub her back once more. Just like always.

"I love you, too," she chimed clearly with a happy content smile. Did he even think about doing that anymore? Sometimes she was certain that it was just as automatic as the sun coming up, but she didn't mind. She liked the comfortable and the familiar, but if there was no familiar then the unfamiliar wouldn't feel half as special when it happened in her opinion. "It's not often I get to watch you sleep," she pointed out to him.

"That's because watching you sleep is one of my favorite past times." She smiled bright at the omission. She'd never thought about it before but somehow she knew it was the absolute truth. And it made her feel…lucky. How many men in the world honestly just liked the image of their true love peacefully asleep next to them? Or had the urge to watch just to make sure they weren't having a nightmare and were sleeping peacefully? She honestly didn't know, but she wanted him to know that she liked it and more importantly she wanted him to know that she missed it when it was gone.

"Maybe that's why I can't sleep without you," she whispered. "Maybe I feel like sleeping without you by my side, without your hand on my back is unfair. I don't know how to be by myself anymore and I don't want to. I need your hands on my back, you beside me, to really rest."

There was no response, not for the longest time. He merely held her close and she assumed began to drift off again. She was nearly to sleep herself when she finally heard his chest vibrate beneath her cheek and he said "Did I ever tell you why I do that?"

Did I ever tell you why I do that…do what? Hold her? Rub her back? There was a reason beyond the obvious?

"No," she muttered suddenly wide awake again. "I thought you did it because you liked to…it seems natural-"

"It is  _now_ ," he interrupted. "But it wasn't always. It's never been something I've shared with anyone other than you." Well she liked the sound of that! She always liked when he admitted that she was different than any of the other women that had been in his life! But this was different somehow. She pushed herself up on her elbows, suddenly curious for answers! What was he talking about? She had to know!

"I don't understand," she confessed, looking down at him, at his peaceful content face. Her husband's face. What did he know that she didn't?

"My Beautiful Belle..." he muttered with a sigh before reaching up and pushing her hair back behind her ear. "What do you dream about at night?"

She could feel her brow knit together as she looked at him. Answering a question with a question. She hated it. Though she let it pass because she had the sense that this was going somewhere beyond that question. He was happy that she'd asked, maybe because he wanted to tell her about something he liked just as she had wanted to let him know she liked when he held her. Besides, the answer to that particular question was easy enough.

"I don't dream."

He chuckled to himself as he held the hand on his chest tight. "You do, you just might not know it." She could figure that much out for herself. If she didn't dream at all she wouldn't have nightmares! She did dream, but for whatever reason she didn't remember them unless she woke up screaming...which she never seemed to do anymore as long as he was there with her. He gave her sweet dreams.

"My beautiful Belle," he whispered again, looking at her so seriously but also tenderly it was almost heartbreaking. "When you first came back to me, when I woke up after our first night together…I'll never forget your face. You were asleep, clearly, deeply asleep, but your hand, this hand," he murmured bringing the hand in his own to his mouth and kissing her fingers. "It was balled into a fist so tight you're knuckles were white. Every muscle in your back was tight and tense, ready to run or fight, unresting. And this face," suddenly he moved the hand wrapped around her own up to cup her cheek and run a thumb over her features. "You were so uneasy," he went on, "so clearly upset by whatever the images in your head were and it was so tempting to use magic to banish it.

"But with one hand in yours, the other on your back, and when I kissed you, just here..." he led her head down to his lips and kissed her gently between her eyebrows, making her smile and cover his hand with her own when she looked down at him again to find him beaming at her.

"That was the smile you gave me that first morning," he whispered looking her over. "And I was amazed to find that what you needed wasn't magic-"

"Just you," she finished for him with a smile, happy that he'd told her that story. "I don't remember that," she admitted sadly, wishing that she did. She could barely remember rolling over for him that first morning. Funny how much of that encounter had become blurry after she'd sworn to herself that she would never forget it.

"No, of course you don't-you could sleep through anything," he teased. She laughed, he'd told her that before…so had Neal! They were an interesting contrast sometimes. The woman who could sleep through anything slept with the man that could sleep through nothing! Though if the story he'd just told her said anything about them it was that their differences didn't matter. He loved her more than she knew sometimes.

"Well…" she sighed, "do I still make that face?"

He shook his head. "Not often," he assured her, "it vanished after a week or so and I can't remember the last time I did see it."

"Because you make me feel safe," she declared, "you've always made me feel safe. But...you still rub my back…"

"It's a habit now," he nodded. "A wonderful habit I can't stop, not even if I wanted to. I'm addicted to you." There wasn't a smile big enough to show him how happy that comment made her feel so instead, she leaned down and kissed him. Once. Then twice. Then happily climbed up on top of him as they continued their embrace, their hands tangling in hair and scraping skin as they held one another.

When they broke apart they were both smiling, both perfectly happy. "You chase my nightmares away and guard my dreams," she whispered, it was the only explanation for why she only ever had those nightmares when he wasn't by her side! And she was beyond thrilled that he calmed her without using his magic. It was proof that he was something bigger than the Dark One could ever be.

"It's an honor. And for all you give me it's an even trade," he whispered, pulling her down against his chest. His hand automatically began stroking up and down her back again and as she rested her head against his shoulder, she was suddenly aware of how heavy her eyes were after staying up all night to watch him sleep. Finally she closed her eyes and sighed as she wrapped her arms under his shoulders and focused on the movements of his hands. She liked watching him sleep, but she couldn't deprive him of the opportunity to watch over her. It was only fair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You didn't think we would go from the cabin to the mansion too fast now did you? Nope...considering everything that has happened and what is coming I wanted to take some time on their honeymoon and just give us some pure fluff. Lord knows we haven't had nearly enough of it in the fandom! And this chapter...pure fluff. I've known the reason behind Rumple rubbing Belle's back for years now. As a few of you know I have plans after the series ends to write the entire thing from Rumple's perspective and that chapter has been written for years...I've always wanted to bring it up in Moments and this chapter gave me the perfect opportunity to do that! I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	4. One Last Forgotten Vow

When she finally woke up the next morning she found that she wasn't just curled against him like normal, she was draped across him. She wasn't on her side but on her belly, strewn across his chest, one hand in his hair, the other he held in his own. Her torso was laying against his arm keeping him from brushing her back the way he liked but she knew he was up because she could feel his thumb making slow steady motions against her skin. If it wasn't for the sun in her eyes she would have been happy to go back to sleep, but she couldn't. It had been a long twenty-four hours. She wanted to see him, to hold him again, to talk to him…her husband.

"You're sleeping on my side," she whispered with a playful smile tugging at her lips. The gentle grip he had on her tightened the moment he knew she was awake and he gave a deep, contented sigh that she moved all too easily.

"I think we've long since abandoned the conventional tradition of 'sides'," he whispered. "I don't think we've ever slept together without being entwined like this."

"Do you mind?" she asked, wondering for the first time if it bothered him, if she crowded him and he had trouble sleeping because of the only reason she could sleep easy.

"I'll mind on the day that you stop," he muttered instead.

She smiled again, happy with his answer, then pulled herself up and kissed him before she readjusted, turning on her side so she could hold him just as she always did. He welcomed it, letting her settle before kissing the top of her head and moving his fingers over her back in the familiar way she now knew they both liked. "I love you," he muttered.

First thing in the morning and last thing at night. She never in her life would ever doubt how much he loved her. "And I love you, too," she sighed.

It was perfect, laying there with him in the sunlight, not a soul for miles to tear them apart, nowhere to go, no one to see. She could just be there with him. Trace her fingers over his ribs and chest. Feel him breathe against her. Watch as he grabbed her hand and laced their fingers together, as he kissed her hair again. She knew their life would be different than it had been, that marriage would change them just as their relationship had, just as it always would. She knew that it wouldn't always be like this and they wouldn't always have this kind of peace, but that only meant that she had to enjoy moments like this at every chance that she got. The sad truth was that neither of them really knew when it was going to end.

"I suppose eventually we'll need to talk about what comes next," she muttered against his chest. It felt like it had been hours since they last spoke, since they stopped their love making, and confessed their undying love for one another. She could have kept going, she suspected they both could have, but she wanted to rest a bit. To enjoy being in his arms. To feel his hands on her back and his heart beating beneath her cheek. She didn't want to think about leaving the cabin, she didn't want to think about leaving this bed! But she knew they'd have to. She knew they'd have to do it soon. As much as she didn't want to do it…they didn't have a choice, they had to leave and rejoin the rest of the world sometime.

"Eventually," he muttered beneath her. "But not now."

"When?" she asked lazily.

"Belle…right now, for all I care, we could stay up here until the Earth falls apart."

"Are you running away Rumpelstiltskin?" she asked coyly, over joyed that for at least a little while his urge to work and involve himself in everyone else's business had dampened.

"I wouldn't call it running away from the world so much as running toward you," he answered. She liked that thought. She liked the idea of keeping him close, safe in her arms. Her weight might have been on him but suddenly she felt like he was in her arms. Peace. He'd told her that a million times. She gave him peace. She forgot too often just how good they were for each other.

"I could make you breakfast," he muttered softly after a moment. Food. She wanted food. They'd both need it eventually. But not now. Now it was only a want. Now she needed this. Now she just needed to be with him like this for as long as possible.

"Please don't move," she requested. "I'm perfectly happy right here."

"Then we won't move until you want us to." She dropped a kiss onto his chest and burrowed closer to him, or tried to. She was already as close as she could be. "You're smiling so bright you outshine the sun," he muttered after another quiet moment, his thumb making motions on the back of her hand.

"You make me the happiest person in the world. When we woke up yesterday I didn't think we'd be here, in this place, as we are now. Married!" she breathed, the very word, used in present tense or even past tense for them still took her breath away. "I can't contain my joy."

"No regrets then?"

"I regret nothing in our life. It brought us here. This is where we were always meant to be, to wake up in each other's arms. I'm happy we finally made it."

"I'm happy we finally had the time to make it. You are a more perfect woman than I could ever have conjured in three hundred years, my beautiful wife." She nearly broke into tears. Not "beautiful Belle", not "sweetheart", or "darling". She was something new now. Wife.

"I like that you call me that."

"I like that I can call you that. It didn't mean much the first time but now...I never thought I'd be a married man again, I never thought I'd want to be, but you make me happy, everything that's happened and I can still be happy as long as I have you. That astounds me."

Would this feeling of euphoria, this unending happiness that she felt rising in her chest since last night ever end?! She didn't know. Frankly, she didn't care. She wanted it as long as it lasted. So she smiled down at him, tangling her fingers in his hair again before reaching down to kiss him-

But stopped when she realized there was something that wasn't right. She grabbed his hand before it managed to touch her cheek and examined his fingers.

"Maybe there is something I regret," she muttered. "I'm sorry I didn't get you a ring. But you didn't exactly give me a lot of time…"

"I know," he muttered, kissing the top of her head. "But it's nothing to fret about, a ring is an easy thing to acquire once we decide to rejoin the rest of Storybrooke again."

"But that doesn't make it memorable, or special! It would have been better if I'd had one for you last night."

"Belle, any time the two of us are together is special," he sighed. "Whether it's gold or fleet and we're alone on top of a mountain or surrounded by dwarves at Granny's it'll be special so long as you're there and I know it came from you."

She smiled and looked down at her own glimmering ring. She loved it. Truly loved it in every way and could never in a million years see herself taking it off. She just wanted to match him again just as she had when she'd worn that gold band on her other hand, a silent tribute to the ring he always wore on his own hand.

The ring he always wore...the ring she could see he was wearing now.

"Any ring?" she questioned, glancing up at him one more time.

"Any ring," he promised. That was perfect. She smiled as she rolled over and perched herself carefully up on her elbows. It was a special ring to them both she supposed. He wore it all the time for no reason that she could understand and she liked it because it was familiar to her, part of him in this world. And as for a special time, this morning couldn't seem to get any more beautiful…and it was certainly better than being at Granny's surrounded by dwarves.

"I never thought I'd want to be married," she muttered taking his right hand in her own and gently pulling the metal free from his finger. "You know what I went through before you came along, you know what marriage would have been like for me, but this…this is different. Our marriage is different. I'm happy to be your wife and I promise that we'll make each other happy…together," she vowed, then delicately reached out and moved his ring over to his left hand. Now they matched again. Perfectly. She didn't care if the stones were different or what the carat count was. They were two of a kind again.

"You'll never have to worry about someone taking advantage of you like that again," he promised, reaching out and cupping her cheek with that hand, ring and all, and she couldn't help but close her eyes and lean into it. Somehow the cool metal against her cheek bone felt soothing in a way it hadn't before. "You have my word."

"And you'll never have to worry about being alone or unloved again, not as long as I'm around. You are going to be loved for the rest of our lives."

"For the first time in my life I'm beginning to believe that." Her eyes popped open at those words and she stared down at him nearly in shock. He believed it. He believed it?! Well, he was beginning to believe it but still...beginning was a start! Finally!

"You do?" she questioned, still unable to believe what she was finally hearing. It had taken so long but those were the words that she'd always wanted to hear, all that she'd ever wanted to prove from the moment she first met him, from the moment he'd told her that he was a difficult man to love. He was difficult for the world to love. But she was different.

Without missing a beat he reached up and moved his hand through her hair as he gazed at her adoringly. He smiled up at her, staring into her eyes with perfect confidence before giving a swift nod. "I do," he confirmed before catching her mouth against his and drawing her down to him once more.

Last night had been perfect and romantic, intimate. But now the sun had risen and they had nowhere to go, their kisses were happy and excited, intimate in a different way. As she opened her mouth to kiss him deeper she let him pull her body back against his own and melted into him, as his arms surrounded her and they were rolling over once more.

"I thought you wanted breakfast," she smiled as he moved his mouth to kiss her neck and shoulders.

"I'm hungry for something completely different at the moment."

She didn't object, merely tangled her fingers in fistfuls of his hair and let him love her, just as he let himself be loved by her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, come on now. You didn't think I'd miss the fact that his ring moved hands did you? I just couldn't let that go and I had to turn it into...well, this! We'll be moving on from the cabin soon, but don't worry that won't be the end of the fluff! There is more to come!
> 
> Thank you to Jewel415 for your comments on the last chapter. I'm so happy that ya'll are liking the fluff! It's one of my favorite things about this section! Peace and Happy Reading!


	5. Restless Souls

She couldn't remember feeling happier or more content. It seemed like the last year of their lives had been spent buying time, rushing off to help others, and stealing private moments when no one was looking so no one would notice the way that they just wanted to have a few uninterrupted minutes of peace.

Finally they'd had minutes. Finally they'd had hours! For the first time since…well, since the town line really, they'd woken up and felt no urge to move, no call to rush into town, no reason at all to abandon this little room in the cabin. They lounged in the sun drenched wooden room nearly all morning, only roused themselves toward lunch time when they could hardly ignore the call of their stomachs anymore, and even then they barely stayed away for an hour. It was nice just getting the opportunity to be. To lay her head lazily against his shoulder and watch him play with her hand between his own, watching fascinated as he examined finger after finger, every line on her palm, laced their fingers together over and over again, and finally breathed a sigh of relief when the angle allowed a view of their rings.

She liked it when he was happy like this. It was such a different contrast from what he'd woken her up to last night…though she was sure that would return. When it did they would deal with it, just as they had last night. For now there were other things that needed their consideration and concern.

"People will notice you know," she whispered quietly. If she spoke any louder she might disturb the sanctity of what they'd created, she certainly didn't want that. "News of our engagement will only be making its way around this morning, but they'll notice that we're wearing rings already. Do we make another announcement of marriage? Publicly?"

"I've no doubt the cricket will take care of announcements for us, Sweetheart," he muttered confidently.

"You really believe Archie is the type of person to run off and gossip like that?" she asked sarcastically. He quieted in defeat. No, he didn't think Archie would do something like that either. The only other person that really knew besides her father was Ruby and she didn't think either of them were likely to tell anyone what had happened for one reason or another. Which meant it was up to them. So long as that was what he wanted. She hadn't forgotten, there had been too many times that people had used her to get to him, announcing they were to be married was a public announcement that she hadn't expected as it was, how would he feel about making everything else known so quickly?

"Can I call you my husband?" she questioned. "Can I start using your last name?"

"There is paperwork that goes with that, you know," he answered seriously. It only made her smile. He hadn't said no.

"I know, but there's no reason I can't use it until we figure all that out. Right?"

"Do you want to use my name?" he pressed as if it was truly something he was concerned about. "Really want to use my name? Not something out of convention or tradition-"

"You already know I do," she insisted quickly. Wasn't wanting a new name what had driven them to have a conversation about this very day more than a year ago? "I want to be your wife in every way imaginable in this world and ours. But I don't want to expose you to anyone, or make you feel uncomfortable. If you don't want me to use it or tell everyone so fast-"

"We already made an announcement in the paper. Even if Dr. Hopper isn't the type to gossip the people of Storybrooke aren't so dim they won't put two and two together when they see our rings and I'm not going to let us simply remove them day in and day out, hiding like we're ashamed or afraid. I don't want to keep it secret, in fact I'd like for anyone who doesn't like it to come see me personally-"

"Rumple..." she warned, not liking the tone of his voice.

"The point is…" he went on quickly, "that while the world makes me uncomfortable and frightened…you make me feel peace and I'd be honored if you used my name as your own and to have the whole world know we're married. Whatever comes because of that knowledge… I'll keep you safe. We'll be careful, but we'll face what comes together."

She beamed as she starred once more at the entangled fingers he held over his stomach. Belle Gold. She had a last name. And she already liked the sound of it! And even better she liked the sudden shift in their pronouns. "We", "they", "theirs", "together"…each one made her rejoice a little bit more. Never in one hundred years could she have ever seen this going as smooth as it had. "Good," she muttered. "I want the world to know too."

She heard him give a half-hearted snort and felt him kiss the top of her head before the room dropped into its comfortable silence again. Peace. "I'm sorry they don't match," she heard him breathe. It was almost peace. There was distress in his voice, it was faint but there. And as she looked at their fingers again, she knew right away what he was thinking.

"I'm not," she answered looking at their rings. "I think they're perfect."

"And I'm sorry I couldn't come up with a better place than the cabin to take you-"

"We don't need the world Rumple, we just need each other-"

"But-"

"Rumple!" she ordered leaning on her elbow and pulling her ringed hand from his own to touch soft hair as she looked at him. Leave it to the ultimate perfectionist to find a flaw in the greatest moment no money could ever buy! "Are you happy here? With me? Right now?"

His response was perfect. An unwavering nod. A kiss to her palm. A hand in her hair. "I am. Always."

"Then we don't need anything more than you and me. We're fine right here, just was we are."

Only he wasn't. He was happy, she could tell that easily enough, but he was…uneasy. Restless maybe. And looking down on him, she finally realized that for the first time he really had nothing to do. Nowhere to be. No son to find. No orders to follow. No grandson to save. No curse, potion, theory, or magic spell to work out in his head. And she couldn't think of anything more terrifying than keeping still for a man who had known nothing but motion for hundreds of years.

The problem was that she couldn't really think of anything to do about that! She really didn't want to leave because selfishly she wasn't ready for this to be over just yet. She wasn't ready to go back to Storybrooke, she wasn't ready to give themselves over to the complex world. That would come. In her experience it would come too soon. Frankly, in her experience, they were lucky they'd turned their phones off and no one had come pounding on the cabin door asking for help by now! And maybe…for that reason alone, they needed something new. Something different. Maybe they needed to hide a little bit better just for a little while longer. Some place where no one would think to look, somewhere that he'd feel distracted if only for a few hours just so she could calm him and get a few more hours of her own! Somewhere big. Big enough to keep the claustrophobia and the monsters at bay. Somewhere new that had no bad memories associated with it but familiar enough to be safe. Somewhere calm and quiet, preferably deserted, somewhere no one knew about…

She knew just the place.

The house. The one her father had brought her to when they'd walked nearly all over town talking! The house he'd told her no one had claimed as their own since the last curse hit. Oh, secretly she believed that he owned it. After all what didn't he own in town?! But if she couldn't be sure that he owned it, that meant the rest of the town wouldn't either. A couple of days, truly away from the rest of the world, a place he could explore, a place they could go, like a true honeymoon and not just a weekend getaway at the cabin!

She'd thought of it only seconds ago and yet she was convinced.

"What if I took you somewhere?" she suggested looking down at him. He only looked back confused and probably for good reason. She owned nothing short of what she made at the library and it wasn't exactly like she had a check since the curse had hit, but she could do this for him, give this to him. She knew she could. "I know somewhere we could go. Somewhere new, here in Storybrooke. We'll have privacy, no one would come looking for us, or find us…we could just be alone for a couple of days to do whatever we want! It's beautiful, big...and the view is spectacular!"

"Where?" he questioned. She only smirked. She'd had him at "somewhere new". Curious as he was it wasn't like him to allow some strange new place to go unexplored. For him where it was located was simply irrelevant. It could be an invisible floor of the library for all he cared so long as he got to look around.

"After everything you've given me over the last few days why don't you let me surprise you!" she suggested. "We could go home, pack a couple of bags like real newlyweds and be there before the sun begins to go down! We could stay for as long as we like! Just you and me!"

He studied her with a smile as he considered it, though she already knew he'd say yes. It wasn't like him to ignore something brand new to explore but it also wasn't like him to just agree to things without careful consideration. Besides, if she knew any better then she wouldn't say he objected to going somewhere new, it was going back to the house first. Chances were he was simply thinking of just how much time they could save if he packed their clothes for them with magic! But she wanted this. To be normal, to pretend like magic wasn't an inescapable part of their life! She wanted to go out of their way and be taken up by banal chores. She wanted to do it with him. And she knew he understood that, which was why, with a beaming smile and a gentle caress to her cheek he gave a small nod.

"Then let's go on an adventure."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so off they go! Mmm...I wonder what trouble Rumple will get into at the Mansion?!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	6. Another Change of Plans

With a change of scenery on the horizon they were finally able to peel themselves out from between the sheets of their bed, shower so they'd be presentable for all of the two minutes they needed to be seen, and slipped on their wedding garments from the day before. The cupboards were magically bare when they finally emerged, though she suspected that it would all be reappearing again after a short while, at home, or at their destination as soon as he knew where it was. They took their cell phones again but didn't turn either of them on again. Easy as it would be to go from here to the spot she had in mind, she wanted to go home first, to pack of bag, to choose for herself what she'd wear over the next couple of days, not to mention the next couple of nights. So with a final glance into her bag to check that the dagger was still safe and sound, with an unnerving kiss on the shoulder and light "it'll be fine" that she felt didn't convey the situation at hand properly, they left for home.

"Five minutes," he stated when they could see his house-their house now-creeping up on them. "Five minutes and we'll be on our way."

"Eager?" she questioned looking over at him. He wasn't one for timelines, he was one for patient perfection.

"Nervous," he answered. "Every second we're here we run the risk of being spotted and pulled back to town to subdue some unknown evil. If they do that, then we'll never get away." She nodded, a silent agreement as they climbed out of the car and quickly made their way up to the front door. As he moved to unlock it, she stooped down to pick up the paper and was met with a wonderful image. The two of them. Smiling and happy, standing in the shop. The headline simple enough "Mr. Gold to Marry Belle French". She glanced over at him as he finally got the door unlocked. Yesterday, last night, this morning, this afternoon. It seemed like longer. Had they really only been engaged a day? Yes, but it seemed like eons had passed since that day!

"Front page news," she whispered, holding it out to him as she shut the door. He took it from her, absent-mindedly at first, but she could tell the very moment his mind seemed to stop and realize what it all meant.

"Well that's to be expected," he muttered after a few moments in a dismissive voice. "I'm a very important man with a very important wife." She smiled at the small joke he'd made, in an effort to appear that it didn't thrill him in the least, that he'd expected it all the while! But she knew, she could tell, that heading, how they were now, it all made him very, very happy! She slipped the paper from his hand carefully and reached up to kiss him delicately so that it wouldn't crinkle. He could pretend he didn't care all he wanted but that didn't mean that she had to. She intended to save it. To keep it forever just like she did him. Besides, chances were he'd find one of his own and do the same.

"Belle," he muttered after a second, touching her neck lightly to force them to break apart. Yes! That was right, she'd nearly forgotten in all the excitement! They weren't staying! They only had- "Five minutes!" he warned. "Five-"

"Minutes, I know, I know!" she smiled happily with a small laugh, before trotting up the stairs to their bedroom. She couldn't ever remember being this perfectly happy. In all honesty she didn't even focus on what she put into the small bag she packed, not like she should have. She threw a couple of nightgowns in, though understood that she'd never really wear them to bed. She found some clothes that would work well enough for an outfit she could wear back, picked out a nicer dress on the off chance they did decide they wanted to go somewhere nice for dinner. But aside from that, she was nearly done by the time he finally made his way into their bedroom, smiling just as she had. They seemed incapable of being unhappy, not even wrapping the dagger in a scarf and placing it within her own bag was going to sway her even if the sight and feel of it still turned her stomach. It was going to be a common thing, she assumed, for at least a little bit. But so long as they were together, so long as she knew he was close by to protect the two of them, it would be alright.

She finished long before him, three minutes left to spare. Maybe she had been a little too eager. Or maybe she was just less particular than he was, sifting through the closet, picking out suits, matching ties… she merely sat down on the bed and waited for him to finish. The picture from the newspaper stared at her as she sat there on the bed and she happily grabbed it, unfolded it, and looked down at their happy faces staring back at her. Yes…they were just as happy now as they had been then. Yesterday. The day after…

_Ding Dong the Witch is Dead: The Mirror Reflects Storybrooke Again!_

The headline jumped out at her when she turned the page. Considering everything that headline reflected she figured that would have been the front page story if Mr. Gold hadn't paid for the best as she knew he had. The story that followed the headline on page two was what she expected, a tale of a wicked witch and an explanation for what had happened in the Enchanted Forest as well as Storybrooke over the last few days. An article on the next page presented the story of Peter Pan and why they'd gone to the Enchanted Forest in the first place. Another article told tales of the Enchanted Forest, featuring citizens that were happy they were back in this realm and others that were fairly unhappy with all the recurring curses placed on them. There was even a poll asking those reading to write in on where they stood for the next issue: "Take me back home", "Keep me here", and "I don't know". On the next page was a list of birth and marriage announcements that had happened over the last year, it was a quick catch up on information that was easier spread here than there. And on the next page-

_The Missing and the Dead._

Her heart stopped and her stomach sank. She felt her mouth go dry at the title and no matter how many times she tried to swallow she just couldn't get her mouth wet again. In the midst of their happiness it felt like someone had just slapped her unexpectedly in the face. With a cautious glance up to find Rumple still in the closet she looked over the names. "The Missing". People that had been lost in the last year whose fates were unknown. A number people should call if they had any information on where they were now and even a few desperate pleas from family members. "The Dead". Those that they knew hadn't survived the last year. Most from natural causes, old age and disease they couldn't cure there. But there were also those that had been taken by the witch and murdered in her service. There weren't many, but only one made her skin tingle.

"Neal Cassidy". An obituary. Simple and to the point.  _"Neal Cassidy, also known as Baelfire, born in the forests of Mist Haven, former lost boy and rebel of Neverland, wanderer and citizen of New York City, died among his family in the forest of Storybrooke, one of the few unfortunate victims of the Wicked Witch of the West in Storybrooke, Maine. Neal Cassidy is survived by his father, Rumpelstiltskin, and a son, Henry, and his son's mother, his beloved friend, Emma Swan. At the time of his burial he received highest honors from The King and Queen for his sacrifice and assistance in destroying the Wicked Witch. He will be remembered as a true hero, a loyal friend, and loving father by all who knew him. He is laid to rest in-"_

"Belle?" She quickly fumbled the paper and closed it, her heart skipping a beat as she looked up to find her Rumple staring at her. She hadn't heard him come out of the closet, she just hoped that she looked presentable and not nearly as shaken as she felt. "Belle, what's wrong?" Or maybe that was just a fruitless wish from the beginning.

"It's nothing," she insisted with a smile, pushing the paper away and examining the packed bags. Still Rumple didn't move, just looked between her and the paper suspiciously.

"You're a bad liar," he accused with a small smile. Was she? Was she really a bad liar, or could he just see right through her like she felt that she could with him? Was there any point in hiding what was bothering her? In starting this marriage with a lie, even a small one like this? No. He deserved to see, he deserved to understand and decide for himself just how much he wanted to know.

So she reached for the paper one more time and opened up to the page she'd been on. She didn't point, didn't say anything, just let him take a seat on the bed next to her and figure it out for himself. He was quiet, but somehow she sensed the moment that he found what he was supposed to find. It was in the air. Somehow it shifted and changed. It seemed…quieter. But only for a moment, before he glanced over at her, trying with everything that he had to keep himself together. "Did you-"

"No," she answered quickly. "Emma and Mary Margaret, they handled the arrangements. One of them must have called the paper and it looks like they're just now getting around to…" Mentioning it? Acknowledging it? Reporting it? She didn't know how to finish that sentence. Part of her hurt too much to finish that sentence.

"There's no mention of you here," he commented softly.

She knew.

"It was before we had our memories back," she reminded herself, trying not to be hurt. "Before anyone had any reason to think we were anything, let alone friends!"

"And if you'd had your memories?" he pressed harshly. "What would you have done then?" What would she have done if she'd known about Neal?! If she remembered all that had happened between the two of them?

"More," she answered simply. She probably would have been the one to arrange the funeral, to write the obituary, to deliver the words Mary Margaret had at the grave. It would have hurt down to the very core of her soul but she would have done it, because it was right. Because it was what Neal would have wanted. And she liked to think, that if everyone else had their memories, had remembered what they meant to each other, just how glued to one another they'd been…no one would have objected to her assistance. After everything that had happened, she felt as though Neal was more hers than any one's. Sad as it was she'd spent more time with Neal since they'd found him than Rumple, Henry, and Emma combined. And selfish as it sounded she felt like it wasn't enough.

"I wish I'd known him as a boy," she lamented finally, unable to stop the words from pouring out of her mouth. "I wish I could have known who he was before all this happened, before we lost you. We talked a lot before he died but his past…I could only get bits and pieces, fragments of that. But we did talk about this you know…you and me, marriage. He'd have been happy we got married. He'd have been more than happy to be up there on that hillside with us."

"Standing with you or me?" Rumple asked sadly, his curiosity getting the best of him in the end.

"Both of us," she answered honestly. "He wouldn't have been able to choose, but…he wanted us to be happy. He wanted us to have the kind of love that we deserve with each other…the one he searched for with Emma and Henry. He'd be happy Rumple, very happy."

"He approved of you then?" he questioned more. He did his best to make his tone joking, lighter, but she could sense the weight that the words carried. She felt them there. Balled in the pit of her own stomach because of her answer.

"Yes," she muttered, thinking back on their conversations, their plans, their actions. "I think he did." In fact, she didn't just think he approved of her, she knew he did. What she wasn't sure he approved of was Rumple with  _her._ It was a strange twist of fate. In the end, whether he'd liked it or not, he'd ended up with a mother and she'd ended up with a son. Where Rumple would have fallen in all that…she supposed she'd never know. "We were important to one another," she reassured herself as she struggled to hold in her tears, the sting of loosing him was too fresh for her to not feel the urge to cry when she thought of it. "He'd be happy that at least we have each other," she muttered, though whether it was for her benefit or his…she couldn't say.

There was silence for a long while. Just as there had been last night in the library, but finally she watched as Rumple rose and set the paper aside for safe keeping on the dresser. "Belle," he sighed. "I don't want to take anymore time…but before we go anywhere…I think there's something I have to do first. Would you mind?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so we get to the detour before the mansion. Sorry for this but I really, really wanted to include Neal early into all of this and give a reason for why he went to the grave. This is, in many ways follow-up from MR&U when Rumple said he wasn't ready. This is the moment that makes him ready, that tells him this is something that he has to do and face and now he's ready. Are we?
> 
> Thank you to Jewel415 for your comments of the last chapter. I'm glad that you don't mind how I played with the story a bit. I hope that feeling continues on as we move forward with these next few chapters and continue on the canon from MR&U. Peace and Happy Reading!


	7. Promises to a Friend

She knew the moment he'd asked to take another trip exactly where he wanted to go and she knew that she couldn't waste any time, or allow him to lose heart and change his mind. They had to go and they had go fast. So without taking the time to change, without taking the time to pack anything more than their single bags, the two of them left the house.

The trip to the graveyard was quiet. Just as quiet as the time she'd made the trip with Ruby for Archie's funeral, just as quiet as when she and Rumple had driven out there in search of Pan, just as quiet as when she'd last gone out there to bury Neal, a friend she didn't know she'd lost. It was painful to be back again, she had the overwhelming urge to cry the moment they pulled in and the unfamiliar headstones greeted her. But she was sure that it was nothing compared the way Rumple felt, looking around the cemetery, casting timid but important glances at the names on the markers. He was Neal's father…and he had no idea where his own child was buried.

"He's through there," she muttered, her voice unable to be any louder. Rumple responded though, heard her loud and clear and stopped the car right where it was. "He's just through there," she repeated, "around that corner and by the tree." He heard her. She knew he did, she could see his eyes follow the path her pointed finger at given him until his eyes arrived at the headstone that belonged to Neal. No. Not Neal. He was Neal to her. He was Neal to Emma and Mary Margaret and David. Neal to Henry. But right now, it wasn't Neal that Rumpelstiltskin had come to see. It was Baelfire. His boy. And as much as she'd loved him, as much as she'd always love him and hold him in her heart, she just couldn't imagine how hard this must have been for the man sitting next to her.

"I can go with you," she suggested, reaching over and taking his hand as he stared ahead of him. "You don't need to go alone."

"No, I want to," his voice was only a whisper as he tore his gaze away from the dot of a marker ahead of him and let out a breath glancing down at their entwined fingers. But the distraction she'd given him was brief. Like metal drawn to a magnet he seemed unable to look away from his son's grave and only a moment later his eyes glanced over the car hood again and into the distance.

She wanted so badly to go with him, to walk over there by his side to say hello to her friend and give him the proper send off that she'd been denied days ago because Zelena had stolen him from her mind.

But he wanted to go alone. Frightening and terrifying as it was he wanted to have this moment alone with his son. She could respect that and he deserved that much. There would be time for her to talk to Neal later. The two of them could return as a pair some other day. This was Rumple's time.

"Hey," she cooed, breaking into his concentration again. Living before the dead. As much as she wanted to talk to Neal herself, she had to take care of his father first. "It's okay, you can…you can do this," she whispered applying a gentle pressure to his hand.

He offered her a sigh and squeezed her hand back before glancing over at her and giving her a questionable nod. It was supposed to be a happy and confident nod, one that reassure her as well as him but she could see through it all to easily. He believed that she believed he could do this. But he didn't quite believe it himself yet. So she leaned over and kissed him one last time before reaching up and tightening the already tight knot on his tie as his security blanket. "Alright," she whispered, "you're ready."

He nodded, and like a bird dropping out of the nest into an unknown world below, Rumpelstiltskin left the car and walked down the path he had never trod for an unknown sight. Neal. Baelfire.

Strange how she felt like that was going to be the most difficult thing to remember. There was a time that she didn't think she'd ever get used to the idea of calling him "Neal" but now the thought of "Baelfire"…it was strange. So strange. All that time that she'd spent with him, all the time that she'd learned how to be a friend. And now here she was. Not as a friend, not as a sister, or a mother…but as a wife! Neal's step-mother! Officially! But…

No, that just didn't feel right either. The idea of being his "step-mother" or anyone's step-anything just felt strange! So much stranger than it had the night at the grave when she realized she'd been tied to them all with or without marriage. Pan was her father-in-law. Henry her step-grandson. But she much preferred the informality that night at the graveyard had to offer them than the titles she bore now. A title didn't necessarily mean that there was a relationship and that was what she craved most of all. A year ago when everyone had returned to Storybrooke from Neverland that was what she'd wanted most with Neal…and now?

If she could use Zelena's time portal, there was so much that she'd change. So much that had happened between then and now that she wanted to warn everyone about so that she wouldn't be sitting here alone in this car. She'd tell herself to trust her instinct, that it wasn't just trauma. That Henry wasn't just Henry. She'd give more to Neal in the beginning of their relationship, she wouldn't just cling to him, she would have supported him more, done her best to guide him. She would have told them both not to trust Lumiere, to believe that there was another way to bring her love back, and she would have warned Bae of the price that he'd have to pay. That because of one poor choice, he never would be able to see his son again. But mostly, right now, if she could change some in the past, she would have changed how she'd been the last time that she'd been here, at this grave.

She would have liked to tell Neal everything that he'd done for her. How much she'd loved him. How important he was to her. She would have liked to tell him how much she enjoyed all of their talks. She would have said…

A headstone. She would have said all these things to a headstone. A cold, lifeless piece of rock! She sighed as she lifted her head up and found Rumple, his back to her as he knelt down at the site of Neal's grave. She'd never been particularly spiritual, but…she did have a sense, a firm belief that those that were lost were never truly gone forever. She'd always hated her mother's grave, she'd never felt any love from it, not the way she did the first time she'd put on her necklace or read the books she'd left behind…she imagined that Neal's grave would feel no better than that.

She didn't have anything of Neal's. She figured she could go back to Granny's and find something from his room to keep later but she felt love when she thought about him. She felt warm when she thought about him. Why did she need a headstone to talk to her best friend? Why did prayers have to be so formal to an unnamed deity she'd never known? Why couldn't she just talk to the person she missed most? Where would she start if he was sitting in the car with her instead of laying beneath the ground?

"There's a lot I want to say…I don't really know where to begin…but…I miss you..." she choked out. The words came easier and quicker than she'd expected. But they were right. "I miss everything about you. The way we had dinner together, the stories we told, but I think I miss talking to you the most. Few people ever really understand each other the way you and I did and…sometimes I find myself wondering how I'm going to get by if I don't have you to talk to!" She glanced back over at the grave, to the form of her husband blurred by tears. She'd get by, she'd talk to him now, but that didn't mean it would ever be the same.

"I think you'd be impressed with how much he's changed," she muttered, leaning her head back and looking at the red roof of the car. "Sometimes I'm impressed with how much he's changed. That the monster that locked me in a dungeon cell the first day I met him could do something so touching as light candles for a wedding, but…he does make me happy Neal. He truly does. And…you once told me that I deserved better than a dungeon, now I have it and…I promise that I'm going to spend the rest of my life making sure he gets the life that he deserves as well. The life that I know you wanted him to have…

"And Henry!" she added quickly, remembering just how much the boy meant to him as well. "I promised you before you left that I'd make sure Rumple was in good hands…but I'll make sure Henry's looked after as well. I doubt he'll have much need of me between Regina and Emma but…I'll do what I can to keep him safe for you. I promise I'll do what I can so he won't forget you, so that he'll know you as well as I do."

He'd be happy. She'd known him well enough in their time together to know that he'd be happy at every proclamation. She deserved more than that dungeon. She deserved to be happy, to have the wedding she'd had last night, the man slowly walking back to the car, and the family that she'd found herself surrounded by before they'd ever actually been family. He'd want her to stay by Rumple. To keep him in check as they both knew that only she could, to make sure that this life he'd chosen to live now was everything it hadn't been before. And he'd want her to look after Henry. He want her to look after him if only because he knew her and trusted her. She was the one in town that truly had the last memories of Henry's father, that could tell him stories about who he was before he died and how hard he'd fought to get back to him. He'd want Henry to know all that…for the pair of them.

"Things will be good for him Neal," she muttered as Rumple came back to the car looking, maybe not happy, but at least a little less burdened than when he'd gone over. "I'll make sure to keep every promise I ever made you…no matter what."

She was quiet by the time Rumple slipped back in the car and shut the door. She knew his son better than he did, but that didn't mean that she had to remind him of that painful fact. She and Neal…they could talk any time she supposed, they'd be friends for the rest of her life, whether Neal was here or not, but for now she didn't need to be a friend, or a step-mother or even a step-grandmother, frightening as that concept was. For now she just needed to play the role she felt she'd been playing for the last year. For now she just needed to be his wife.

She reached out for him when he got back in the car, gently moved her fingers over his arm and shoulder, waiting for him to make the move closer to her, to get himself together enough for him to let her be what he needed her to be. Finally he did. He reached up and grasped her hand in his own again, held it tightly between his own fingers before glancing over with a handsome proud smirk that she felt he had earned. "I love you," he stated.

It made her smile. He'd said it with no hesitation, no doubt, no waiver in his voice. It was a fact. For both of them the truest fact that he could have said amidst a cemetery of bad memories and a night of horrible dreams. They loved each other. That was all they needed to move on from this place…with or without Neal.

"And I love you, too," she confirmed happily.

He gave her a small nod of acknowledgment, then broke into a beaming smile before kissing the back of her hand, releasing her, and starting the car again. "Now..." he sighed looking over at her again, the face of the man he'd been this morning at the cabin. "Where does my beautiful wife intend to take me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You wouldn't believe how difficult this scene was for me to write. I wanted her to have this little moment with Neal because it's going to usher in more than one moment in the future, but what to have her say...In the end I just closed my eyes and wrote and when I opened them this is what came out. I hope that ya'll find it okay. If not there is more to come, probably not in this fiction but certainly in what is to come. This relationship is just to important to Belle for me to drop completely.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	8. Tale as Old as Time

Where did she intend to take her husband? Wouldn't it be great if she truly knew? A house. A big house, one she suspected that he owned, if only because he owned the entire town! But right now she hoped he didn't own it; that it wasn't something he'd ever experienced because he deserved to be surrounded by something entirely new for once, to not have to think about the ghosts in their pasts or what the future might hold. For now they both deserved a little uninterrupted time together, like they'd had at the cabin only this time without fear that anyone would find them. Because really, who would think to look for them here? She only hoped that if her father had the urge to go for a hike he'd use another trail.

She gave him directions as best she could. They weren't great directions. After all the last time she'd come up here she hadn't used the road! She got lost twice, but if he noticed or believed she was lost then he didn't point it out, merely let her continue to tell him where to go. Finally she was on a cliff that she recognized, finally she saw towers rising up over tall bushes and massive trees as the car followed the road that was beginning to look more and more like a long driveway. Yes! She'd found it!

"There!" she shouted as the car moved forward. "Right around the bend!" And there it was. Just as she remembered it, looking as empty and abandoned of all life as the first time her father had shown it to her. It wouldn't be lifeless tonight. They'd make sure of that! "I ah…I found it on a morning hike," she explained as he pulled to a stop. It wasn't a lie, she was just being selective with the truth, thinking it was easier than explaining who exactly had been on that morning hike with her and the purpose of it. Rumple and her father were still on shaky ground and she didn't want that to interfere with the rest of their honeymoon. They'd talk about it later. For now, all that mattered was this house and the two of them again! "It must have come over at the last curse…no one's claimed it, so I thought there'd be no harm if we borrowed it for our honeymoon!"

He smirked as he took the news in for a moment, sorting through it in his own mind, weighing the pros and cons as she had when she'd thought of it that morning, then looked over at her and absolutely beamed. He was happy again. That was the reaction that she wanted from him and she couldn't help but laugh at his enthusiastic face. It was wonderful when things went the way they were supposed to. Like normal. For once...

"Come on," she urged after a moment, looking at the peaceful house with a happy sigh. "Let's go!" He nodded and moved the car further along the driveway, parking in the place that she told him to, an archway with a door set into its side. The driveway went on farther and she suspected that this wasn't exactly the front door, but it was the door she'd used last time, the one she was most comfortable with. Rumpelstiltskin peered up at the big mansion as they went to the back to retrieve the little bags they'd each packed.

"Are you sure no one lives here?" he asked, looking overwhelmed.

Was it possible she was wrong? That he didn't own the house? Was it possible her father was wrong? That the house wasn't unused? No. Well…no, the house wasn't being used. The outside hadn't been touched since she was last here. In fact she could still see the prints of her unsuitable high heels from when she'd been here. No. She felt confident that the house wasn't used. But she no longer felt confident that he was the unnamed owner! That she was happy about...and yet suddenly more apprehensive of it at the same time.

"Sure," she answered. "Let me take you inside and show you around. You'll love it!" If they were going to do this then they were going to do this and she just wanted to get it over with so that it would be done! Maybe she'd feel less uneasy when she was inside again.

The door was unlocked, just as it had been days ago. It made her feel better. And the moment she stepped inside and glanced around relief swam through her veins and she smiled. Yes. No one was here. If someone did live here there would be evidence of life! Something lying out on a table. A half read book. Perhaps a pen that had been dropped on the floor! No, this was too pristine for life! But that still didn't answer her question.

"You know, I wonder who lived here?" she blurt out, before setting her bag down on a chair. He didn't answer, no doubt he was still just taking it all in as he had outside, as she had the first time that she'd been here. No, who lived here didn't matter right now, just that they weren't here now. "Come on, take a look around it is spectacular!" she encouraged instead, trying to pique his interest so that leaving the cabin felt worth it. "You can see the ocean from nearly every room!" she walked to the window, to take a glimpse of one of the windows she'd looked through by a piano only a couple of days ago. There. The ocean. Stunning! Just like it was from every room she'd seen. Here. The library. The bedroom. The ballroom!

She let out a gasp as she remembered the grand room that she'd seen days ago and fallen in love with! "You haven't even seen the best part yet!" she squealed with glee practically clapping with excitement. She even giggled a bit as she grabbed his shoulder to pull him along to the double doors. Sure, the giggling made her feel like a child again, but the truth was she liked being overwhelmingly happy like this. She liked feeling like a child again and liked knowing she could be that way around him. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had this feeling but she intended to hold onto it as long as she could. And it wouldn't hurt if she could drag him into this feeling with her a bit. "Come on," she encouraged, looking at the doors. Shut, just as she'd left them. Yes, this place would be perfect for a few days. Private. Isolated. And if he truly didn't own it…then no one would find them here.

She stood at those doors and slid them open just a crack, then closed them again, a simple action meant to tease him but when she glanced behind her she was surprised to find he wasn't there as she'd expected. He was still at the table, right where she'd left him, staring at some trinket or other, looking entranced by it. "Is everything okay?" she asked glancing at him and…what was that thing?!

"Yeah," he breathed, glancing at her before looking back at the table, making her stomach turn over because she knew him well enough to know when everything wasn't- "It's just whoever this place belonged to…has interesting taste."

The smile on his face made her stomach settle. It was nothing. She was simply panicking for no reason, being paranoid. After the last year she'd been conditioned to expect the worst when it was nothing at all. Everything was fine he was just taking it all in for the first time, just as she had. Yes. That was it. It had to be, because he finally joined her at the door, stood behind her just as she'd planned on from the beginning and put his lips on the spot where her neck met her shoulder.

"What's the best part?" he asked quietly.

"Are you ready?" she beamed, back to teasing again. Yes, everything was okay.

"I am."

"Are you sure?"

"Show me the best part, Sweetheart," he demanded sweetly, just as happily as before.

Without further ado, she dug her fingers into the crack in the doors and pushed them open to reveal the beautiful ballroom and she felt herself beam wide. Whether he liked it or not, it was her favorite part. But she did hope that he liked it! She felt like she was seeing it in a new light, how could she not after everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Since he didn't own the house, since no one lived here, then maybe they could figure out how to buy it or rent it, and bring their family up here sometime to celebrate their marriage since they couldn't be at the ceremony…when they were ready to be around others of course. This room would be perfect for something like that, one long table for a family dinner. He would need some convincing to be that social for a night, but she could do it. Besides, it might be nice for everyone. She glanced back at him, saw the small smile tug on his lips as he looked around the grand room and she let out another giggle. He did like it.

"Come on!" she begged, taking his hand and pulling him into the room, into the center of it where its enormity was just downright spectacular! Was it her, or was the room even better now that he was here with her? She couldn't ever remember smiling this much, or her heart pounding this much the first time she'd been up here.

"So…?" she smiled coming to rest before him. But he wasn't taking the room in as she'd hoped, he was only looking at her, looking happy and mesmerized as he so often did. But they had a lifetime to look at one another, she already knew what he thought of her, she wanted to know what he thought of all this! "What do you think?" she asked, trying to get his attention on the house again as she released him.

"Well, I think, we've been married almost a full day," he declared, rubbing his hands together, "and I don't believe we've had our first dance."

Somewhere in the back of her mind she wanted to question what he was saying, to make the connection, but before the words could even get out of her mouth, the world around her changed.

A snap of his fingers. A noise. The phonograph in corner had sprung to life.

Another snap. Light. The chandelier she'd loved the first time she'd been up here was lit.

Snap. Weight! Pulling her down, heavier than clothing she'd ever worn Storybrooke hung from her body.

Snap. Blue and gold! He wasn't wearing his suit and tie anymore. She wasn't wearing her white and cream colors.

A ball gown. Yellow. Soft and buttery. He'd dressed her in something more royal than what she'd been wearing the first day that she met him. And he...he looked-

Music. A piano playing a pretty tune that sounded familiar but she couldn't seem to get her mind to stop working long enough to identify it. All she knew was that she was finally undoubtedly overwhelmed. To the point that it was difficult to breathe and think! It was especially difficult as he took careful small strides toward her, looking just as dashing as any prince she'd ever seen, with a smirk that nearly made her knees weak.

"Care to dance…Mrs. Gold?" he questioned with his hand extended.

Care to dance? Him…and her? Mister and Missus! Dance?! She automatically placed her hand in his, her body moving of its own accord without her having to tell it to. She did her best to find words, to not break into happy tears at this beautiful gesture, this moment he'd created for her…but it would probably be useless. This was…there were no words for what this was!

"I would love to," she managed with a smile. It had been forever since she'd last danced. Though she'd attended balls in the last year she'd never felt anything like this! Nothing that had moved her to actually dance! But her body remembered the motions, reaching out for his shoulder as his hand held hers firmly. A hand at her waist drew her closer and she was happy he pulled her closer than she anticipated for a minute, letting her rest her head against his own so she could stop shaking and get her legs under her. Oh, for the first time in a long time she felt like a princess. The one she'd always wished she could be, not the one that she'd been. She was too old for this, to be struck down by weak knees and girlish giggles and gestures. She was too married for it! But maybe, just this once…there was no harm in it for the moment.

They were dancing. Not just their first dance it was their  _first_ dance…ever! And even though they'd never actually done it before, with each other at least, it was perfect. He lifted her off her feet beautifully, without even a hint of effort and circled with her before setting her back on her feet just as gracefully and flawlessly as he'd picked her up. When they were face to face again, and words failed her, she reached out to touch his cheek, smiling so that he'd know just how happy she was. Then, with a small motion they began again. One step. Then two. Then three. Then a grand gesture that she recognized, leaving her space for a turn. And when she reached out to move back into his arms she felt herself fall into them, trusting he'd catch her as he held her in a dip. He'd dipped her. No one had ever dipped her in her life! It was so simple and yet so perfect. It was overwhelming again and she felt her chest gasp for breath as she stared up at him hovering above her before he set her back on her own two feet and moved with her again, only this time it was different.

It wasn't a dance of their world it was a dance of this one. Her hands around his neck and his around her waist as they clung for dear life and swayed with smaller steps. She felt like she could cry; she felt like she should cry as her head rested there on his shoulder. She'd brought him here so he'd have something new to explore, so that he wouldn't feel overwhelmed with old memories and here she was feeling more than she ever thought she could feel. She knew marriage wasn't like this all the time, but if this could be a fraction of it, an eighth or even a sixteenth, she'd take it. Their love wasn't the only thing that was extraordinary. He was. From that beast she'd met what seemed like a hundred years ago to…

She pulled her head off his shoulder and looked him over, feeling the tears gather in her eyes again as she realized that they were dressed in their wedding clothes again. But fine suit or handsome apparel that wasn't what shocked her. It was something else. Something she'd just realized. Something…remarkable.

"What?" he questioned gently with a small curious smile.

She beamed right back. "You truly are dashing, my very handsome prince," she whispered laying her head against his chest and managing to catch her tears just in time. He was hers. Hers. Her very own! She never thought she'd want something like this, but now that she had it-

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, my Darling Belle, but I'm certain I'm no prince," he whispered holding her closer. Now that she had it she could spend the rest of her life convincing him of the truth!

"First of all," she pulled away, fighting off her urge to laugh, "you are handsome to me and also to Lacey. And if someone as shallow as she could see it then others can too! And if they don't, then I'll happily tell them over and over again that you are the most beautiful man I've ever laid my eyes on. And second of all you are a prince…now."

"To you, perhaps," he countered.

"Not anymore. Not just to me!" she argued happily. Hadn't he figured this out yet? Hadn't he put it together? True she only had a few moments ago but that's because she'd denied her past until recently. Until Neal had taught her that it was part of her and she couldn't "opt out" of it. "You married me," she explained to him. "I may be a caretaker but by blood I'm a Princess, which makes you-"

"A Prince," he breathed in shock as they stopped swaying for a moment to let it sink in. "Imagine that!"

They both laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved this scene! Problem was that I couldn't just leave it alone, you know me, I have to pick at everything and finish it. Finishing it wasn't terribly difficult, but I hope that you'll like their conversation at the end because it was something that dawned on me as I continued to write Moments. Belle being a princess...the fandom seems deadlocked on that. Half of us say she is, the other half say she isn't, and naturally A&E aren't talking. So...here is the disclaimer I feel like I give far too often for Moments. Moments!Belle is a princess. I had to make a judgement call on this one and while I see the evidence for both sides I think there is slightly more evidence from the comic and the episodes and interviews that point toward the fact that she is royalty rather than just the daughter of nobility. So, until the time that things change and I get word that she is certainly 100% not that kind of royalty...this is just how it goes. Don't worry, I am keeping track of all of the chapters that mention her royalty status so that in the end it'll be very easy to go back and change if that's what needs done.
> 
> Peace and happy Reading!


	9. More Than a Day

The rest of the day had been…a dream! A dream that she never felt was possible with him. They'd danced until their feet got sore and their arms were tired. They explored the house, finding a bedroom they both agreed on to set their bags in, and when she came out of the bathroom she was shocked to realize that that he wasn't there with her. She couldn't find him at all. At first she'd thought it was a joke, that he was teasing her, they were playing a game of cat and mouse as they had in the castle. But the more she looked, the more she searched floor after floor, room after room and couldn't find him the more she panicked. Where was he? What was he doing? Why was he gone?

She searched frantically, calling out with no answer until…something smelled. There was a smell coming from the first floor a smell that was…wonderful. "Rumple?!" she called following after it. Through a sitting room, an office, a sunroom, it wasn't coming from the kitchen but the door beyond the kitchen…the dinning room. She gasped as she opened the door. A feast was laid out for them. Food she'd never seen before and knew hadn't come up here with them. She'd looked in the kitchen when she'd been here with her father it was empty! And they hadn't brought any with them…but his smile told her everything she needed to know. Magic. The food that had disappeared from the cabin…just as she'd suspected earlier it had all reappeared here for her.

There were two place settings, side by side, across from the windows that were floor to ceiling looking out over a glorious sunset and he stood behind a chair offering it to her. Any trace of anger or panic she had fled. This was wonderful. So, so wonderful! Sitting there, eating a wonderful dinner by candlelight, next to her husband, watching the sunset…why hadn't they done this sooner?

"We should go to bed," she whispered after the sun had gone down, her head already laying against his shoulder. "It's getting late and it's been a long day. I'd rather get into something a little more comfortable." It was a temptation that she knew he wouldn't resist because she knew that he couldn't refuse a request when it was worded like that. They left their dishes where they were, somehow she was certain that by morning they would be either clean or disappear completely, and went back upstairs to the room they'd claimed for themselves.

Upstairs she wouldn't say that they unpacked but she went through her bag, setting that horrible dagger wrapped in a scarf aside. She didn't want anything to do with it tonight. And she certainly didn't want him to have anything to do with it tonight. Just this. This beautiful white nightgown traced with lace that she'd had in the house since before she could remember, that she'd saved for a night just like this. It was perfect.

But when she came out of the bathroom, clean and dressed, and ready for bed in more ways than one she was surprised to see that he wasn't nearly as far along as she was. He was comfortable, as comfortably dressed as he usually got, no jacket, or tie, or vest, the first few buttons of his shirt undone, but his mind was elsewhere, like it had stopped working in the middle of the process, and she could see why. She'd forgotten to put the dagger back in her bag. And he was staring at it, there, right where she'd laid it. That was a mistake. She should walk over and put it away, hide it again. Out of sight out of mind. But she didn't think it would work. That…thing, held too much power over their lives as it was. She didn't want to give it anymore. She was certain that he hadn't noticed her coming back into the room yet, hadn't noticed him looking at it. Maybe that was how to handle it. Instead of giving the dagger more attention she should just take that attention for herself.

So she cleared her throat and made sure to make a point to shut the bathroom door loudly then snuggled down into the bed, laying on her side so she could look over and smile at him. "I think today was one of the best days of my life," she stated plainly.

It worked. He sighed heavily at her comment, looked away from the dagger and stared back down at her with that look of breathlessness. She didn't have to make sure she smiled, a blush and a smile always came naturally when he looked at her like that. Light and heat exploded suddenly behind her, nearly making her jump before she looked over behind her and saw that a fire had come to life in the grate. Magic again. The two of them, a fire, no worrying about a dagger…this was much better. "Good thinking," she commented, "it was getting chilly."

"Well, we can't have that," he muttered. Whether he was ready for bed or not didn't seem to matter. He laid down next to her in the bed, moved a hand up and down her bare arm, but didn't move closer. Just starred at her. Looking…sad? Confused? Conflicted? She didn't understand that look!

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"No," he whispered with a small shake of his head, "no that's impossible right now." Impossible right now. For once they could put the dagger, where they were from, what they'd lost behind them and just have a day. One day. Remarkable.

"We finally got our one day," she pointed out astounded. It seemed like an eternity since he'd promised her after returning from Neverland that they would have one day together. But she'd spend another eternity waiting for another one so long as it could be as perfect as this one.

"Indeed we did," he muttered beside her, before heaving a contented sigh and tracing a thumb over her cheek. "And we used it well."

They had. From the cabin, to the house, to the grave…to here. Suddenly she broke into a smile. "We broke into a stranger's house for our honeymoon."

He smiled with her. "It's not breaking in if it's unlocked and abandoned. And if breaking into an unclaimed, unlocked house is the worst thing we've done in our time together then I think we're doing alright."

She laughed at that. After all they'd been through was that really the worst they'd done together? It certainly wasn't the worst thing either of them had done. But the worst thing they'd done together? Probably, this night held that honor. And in her mind, funny as it was to her, that made him right. They made each other better, she believed that more than she believed anything else. This day…it only seemed to prove it.

"We needed this," she muttered when she finally stopped laughing.

"Marriage?" he questioned.

She only smirked. "That too." They'd needed to be married of course, but she'd felt married to him long before she'd had a ring on her finger. What they'd needed was a day like today. A day where the only two people they saw were each other, the only people they cared for were each other. They'd needed a day to just be Belle and Rumpelstiltskin…Mr. and Mrs. Gold. And for a moment, when he looked at her she knew that he understood that perfectly.

"Yes," he agreed with a nod. "We needed this as well as that."

Marriage, a long day, perfection. The only problem she had now was that she could actually feel the pull of their long day getting to her. And of course laying down in a comfortable bed with a comfortable pillow didn't make that any better. It just kept calling and beckoning, and calling and beckoning, and…

"Belle," his voice pierced the quiet and made her jump to life again. It was the first day they'd been married she shouldn't fall asleep like this. "Belle will you do me a favor?" A favor. He wanted a favor.

"Of course," she answered confused. What did he want? What was that look behind his eyes? It was…desperate!

"Tell me about him…about my son." She felt her heart stop. He'd asked it quietly, in that way that he was embarrassed to ask and hoped that she wouldn't hear so there was a chance that he could take it back…but there was no way that could happen. She'd heard every word. And he understood that look in his eyes. He wanted to know about Neal. He was finally ready to talk about him. And she…she'd been ready to talk to him about it since they got their memories back. But, what exactly was she supposed to say? Where was she supposed to begin? What did he need to know about his son that she could tell? He'd worked in a pawnshop? How he'd met Emma? Those were good stories. They were important stories but were they really what made Neal Neal? Was that really what made him Rumples son?

"He was a good man, Rumple," she answered quietly, the first safe thing to come to her mind. "He loved his family. Henry and Emma. Me and you. He…he didn't like to admit it, but he did love you. And he was like you, in a lot of ways-"

"How?" he interrupted. "How was he like me?"

She felt herself smirk, recalling all the little things he'd done when she'd known him that had made her think about how they were related, how similar they were. "He was protective. Too protective sometimes," she answered. "He liked his solitude, like to stick to himself and didn't give his trust away easily. He was responsible and he didn't take any responsibility lightly. He cared for me when he didn't have to, when we had no link and I shouldn't have been his concern.

"He loved his family," she repeated, because in the end that was one common trait that they shared, and it was possibly the most important. "He loved his family so much he was willing to do anything to see them again. And that made him brave and fearless and sometimes…sometimes that wasn't always a good thing."

"There are things I recognize," he muttered. "Things I remember but it's like he's two people. The son I lost isn't the one you knew..."

"He grew up Rumple," she insisted. "He changed from what you knew then, but he told me enough to know…he was still your son, still Baelfire, just…just different…older. You should be proud of him. Of all that he is. Because he'd be proud of you and all that you are now! He'd be happy about this," she insisted again, reaching forward to take his hand and rub her thumb over the ring that was now his wedding band. "He'd be very happy about all of it."

He nodded, removed his hand from her own and placed it against her cheek before leaning forward and putting his forehead against her own. She let her eyes close again. Let him rest against her but also gave him all the privacy that he wanted after such a painful subject. But painful or not she would remain unmoving on it. No matter what happened Neal would always be glad this had happened. She was sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a bit of a complex chapter and some day when we get to the Rumple version of Moments I think it'll make more sense but for now...basically I'm trying to show you that Rumple is struggling. When she steps out of the bathroom he's looking at the dagger and he knows the hat is there and is mind is already turning, and he knows that it's turning. I want you to see that he knows it's turning and thinking and he's trying to fight it off. Asking her to tell him about Bae...he's trying to remember his promises, to keep Bae and Belle happy. Obviously he will fail.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	10. Thinking About Something Else

She was cold.

That was why she was awake. It was so strange for her not to sleep through the night that at first she thought it must have been something else. An attack from Zelena? No, she wasn't in the Enchanted Forest anymore, she didn't have to worry about that. Had Rumpelstiltskin had a nightmare? No. It wasn't that either. She hadn't been startled from sleep. She was just cold. Her bare arm and shoulder felt frozen from cooler air and when she rolled over to look at the fire he'd started she found it was only embers.

That wasn't a big problem, all she had to do was wake him and ask him to restart the thing only-

It wasn't just that she was cold. It was that she was sleeping alone. She should be used to it after all this time, but something in her heart, deep in her soul told her that something was wrong. If he was capable of sleeping by her side then she needed him to be sleeping by her side. Anything else was wrong. And cold.

So she sat up in bed and looked around the dark room, surprised that she was actually sleeping on her side instead of in the middle until she remembered that she'd fallen asleep talking to him last night. They never actually moved into each other's arms, she'd just fallen asleep after they'd talked about Neal. Maybe nothing was wrong, maybe he'd just gotten up to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water? No…something was wrong.

When she reached over to flip the switch on the lamp by the bedside table nothing happened. Strange. She could have sworn it was working before she'd gone to sleep. She crawled over to the one on his side but it too was unresponsive. Those were working only a few short hours ago…weren't they?

Needing something to go right, an answer, Rumple, anything, she flung the covers back and went quickly back to the bathroom, hoping to find Rumple, but when she flipped the switch…nothing.

It wasn't the lights. The power was out. She knew, ordinarily people shouldn't worry about something like that too much. They'd simply light a few candles and go back to bed but Rumple…

Where was he?!

She found a candle with a golden candle stick on top of the fire place. It appeared never used but with a small blow of the dying embers, something she'd learned from Neal to spark a fire back to life, she was able to light the wick. It wasn't much, but light was light. And in a strange unfamiliar house, she'd take it! "Rumple," she called in a harsh whisper as she walked through the big hallways. "Rumpelstiltskin are you there! Rump-ouch!" she cried, stubbing her toe on the leg of a small decorative table.

Perhaps this hadn't been the best idea they'd ever had. Sure, this morning coming here had been fun, staying throughout the day had been heavenly, even joking about breaking in this evening had been fun, but in the midst of an emergency, even one as simple as the power being out, suddenly being in a strange house wasn't so much fun anymore. In fact there was just something downright creepy about wandering the darkened hallways of an abandoned house with nothing but a candle. Especially when she couldn't find her husband.

"Rumple!" she called again as she descended the stairs. There! A noise, coming from the sitting room that they'd first come in from.

"Here!" she heard his faint voice call to her. "I'm here!" She hurried back through the ballroom and slid into the tiny sitting room. He was just as she'd last seen him. Pants, shirt, buttons unbuttoned, there was even a fire lit in this room too. And he was there, at the window by the piano where she had first stopped to look out at the sea when they first arrived, he was staring out the window just as she had. She set her candle down on the table and hurried over to the spot once more and looked.

She didn't see anything. Nothing but the ocean's foam glowing in the moonlight and yet he stared out the window transfixed as ever. "Rumple…what uh…what are you looking at?" she asked gently. Even in the firelight, the intensity coming off of him was…great. Not necessarily good, but still great.

"It's not what I am looking at," he corrected before glancing down at her, "it's what I'm not looking at. Come here. Look." He motioned for her to come closer and she gently moved to the place he was at, so she could see out the window as he had. "What don't you see?"

What didn't she see? What was she supposed to say? She saw nothing as it was! The white of the foam was the only thing bright enough to catch the reflection of the moon everywhere else was too…dark. "Light," she answered. "There's no light. The…uh…the power is out," she informed him remembering why she'd needed a candle in the first place.

"Indeed," he answered. "All over Storybrooke by the looks of it. I don't see a single light or glow from the town from anywhere."

"Well…" It was the power. Power stations went out temporarily didn't they? All the time. It had happened before. Right? "The power has gone out here before…hasn't it?" she asked, glancing back at him.

He only shook his head. "Not like this. Not when the weather is perfect, not all over town all at once."

She felt her stomach roll over. It wasn't the words, it was the way that he'd said them. There was a darkness to his tone, distance. She didn't like either. "Hey," she whispered, turning back to him and taking his hand. Something was wrong! She knew something was wrong! Why had he left her side? He never did that? And why was he looking so…strange? He just didn't seem like himself right now! What was the reason for all this? Had he had another nightmare again? Fallen asleep as she had? "What's wrong?" she questioned, reaching up and putting a hand on his cheek. "What's happening? Do you know why the power is out?"

Finally he glanced down at her. His features softened. He reached for her hand and seemed to slouch a little tension leaving his body, but…why had it been there in the first place? "I don't know," he breathed. "I…I woke up to get a glass of water and the power went out. It's all very…strange."

Alright, well. That explained part of it, but not all of it. Something was wrong, or had been only a minute ago! What was going on?! "You're worried. Does it mean something?"

"In this town…without a doubt. And if I was a smart man, I might panic and rush out to figure out why."

She looked him over again. He sounded like himself. Like the shock had passed and he was left with a pessimistic outlook for something as simple as the power being out, but…that was normal for him; assuming the worst. At the moment the only thing that wasn't normal for him was giving into his curiosity to "rush out" and figure out what had happened? "But…but you're not a smart man?"

He took her hand and laced it with his own, pulling her away from the window, closer to the little table with knick knacks galore. "Not tonight," he muttered. "Not when my beautiful wife is wearing…" he spread their hands out and admired the white she'd chosen and suddenly she felt a blush creep back up into her chest and neck, "that."

"You're trying to distract me," she whispered, thinking about the blackness outside the window.

"Yes," he answered simply, pulling her forward, "both of us actually, because whatever the problem is, whatever the trouble is…it can wait," he whispered before kissing her.

Again and again he kissed her. If he was trying to distract her then it worked. Though she supposed that whatever was happening outside wasn't exactly something that she needed to worry about. It was just a blackout. Whether or not they'd happened here in Storybrooke, until something worse than a couple of lights not working happened, there was no need to be distracted. No need to worry. So she let him kiss her again and again until she couldn't quite remember how they ended up back in the bedroom. Magic probably, but it didn't matter. All that really mattered in that moment was what happened afterward. Thick darkness pressed in on them from every angle but the fire blazed to life again in their sudden presence while one of a different nature roared to life in their chests.

It was perfect. Just as it always was and would be. Perfection and completion and everything that she knew she'd ever need in life.

Afterwards his arms wrapped around her, pulling her close as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I love you," he muttered happily.

"And I love you too," she muttered back before pressing her cheek against his heart just like always. She liked that things were back to normal again. At least for the time being. "That was a bit more like what I expected a honeymoon to be like," she admitted breathlessly, feeling well and truly spent.

"As opposed to breaking into a house and having the power mysteriously disappear? Yes, that was probably slightly closer to what normal people do on their honeymoons." He'd meant it as a joke, but she felt her heart sink at the words, those words in particular. All this time she'd thought that he'd been trying to distract her, to take her mind off the blackout and frankly it had worked perfectly! But she could hear in his voice that it wasn't her he'd been trying to distract, it was him. Yes, it was just a blackout. But him…he was forever curious. He was forever going to want to be in the thick of it all, knowing what was happening, working to fix things, watching! And because of that it was clear that the blackout was still in the front of his mind.

This was lovely. Being here, alone with him, being married, it was all a dream come true for her, for both of them, but…how long would it really last. She'd managed to successfully take his mind off of Neal and Zelena, but now the blackout still clearly had possession of it and when they were together she wanted it to just be the two of them, no distractions, no thoughts, no calls. He wanted that too. He knew that it was what she wanted above all! Which was probably why he'd tried to distract the two of them to begin with instead of suggesting they leave that very moment.

"Uniquely understanding." That was what Neal had called her when she first met him. She'd told him she had to be understanding and he'd told her that she didn't. She understood that now. She could ignore this, snuggle into him, pull them back into sleep again for no other reason than they'd barely been married twenty-four hours and she wanted a halfway decent honeymoon! Or she could give in. Acknowledge that if they had an eternity to spend together then a few days holed up in a stranger's home would make very little difference. So long as she didn't have to let him out of her sight today, so long as his mind stayed fixed on something besides what had happened with Zelena and Neal, she could let his curiosity get the better of them.

"Rumple…" she muttered pushing herself up on her elbow. "If there is no power, the shop and the library…will they be alright without us?"

He looked her over for a moment and she could see the happy desperation on his face snap to quick attention because he had an excuse. He could say "no" they could go back. But that look quickly died after a moment and instead of looking at her he stared straight up at the ceiling. "The wards that protect our properties are magical, not electrical. I'm sure it'll be safe without us for a bit."

She fought back her smile. Her hero. Her handsome prince. He was resisting because he thought that was what she wanted from him. Because he thought that she needed to hear reassurance. He didn't see that she was giving him permission to use an excuse to go off and do what he loved to do.

"But..." she sighed, "in some of the books I read on magic, I saw that fluctuating energy of any kind can sometimes cause even the simplest of spells, like magical wards, to fail."

This time when he glanced at her she could see suspicion in his eyes as a smile grew across his face. "What are you saying?" he asked skeptically, a sure sign that he suspected exactly what she was doing, but wondered if it was too good to be true. Frankly she was wondering if it was too good to be true.

"I'm saying that it might not be a bad idea to check on the shop. It's early, people might not even know that the power is off yet! If we leave soon, we can be in town by sunrise, check the wards, and make sure the shop is protected properly. You and I both know how bad it would be if someone stole something from there."

Amazement. Complete and utter amazement was the only look on his face right now. He knew what she was doing. They both knew what she was doing. And he looked simply astounded at it. "You are a more perfect woman than I could ever have dreamed up in all my centuries of time."

She beamed at the compliment and nodded her head. For this…she knew that too. "Never forget it. And just...just promise me one thing," she muttered looking down at him. "Someday, when life is less complicated and we know more about crossing the town line…promise me we'll have a real honeymoon, outside of Storybrooke. Promise me one day we'll really see the world."

He picked her hand up, laced their fingers together, and kissed her palm gently. "That is a deal I am happy to make," he promised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to get them back into Storybrooke in the early hours of the morning, before the sun came up, which I thought was going to be difficult until I finally was able to write this chapter. Seems stupid right, but it was something that really bugged me when I saw the episode. They were on their honeymoon...why were they going back before the sun even rose?! It just didn't make sense to me. Did it bug anyone else? I hope that I explained that decently enough.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	11. The Grandparents of a Teenager

This wasn't the end. Someday they would have a true honeymoon, one that wouldn't and couldn't be marred by the citizens of their lovely town because they'd be far away from this place. They'd be halfway around the world with no magic to bring them back. Though then, she supposed, they'd still have the one magic word that everyone outside of Storybrooke knew about. Money. Money and titles, paperwork. Maybe they'd get to talk about that today too, while they were in town. Just because they weren't going to be in this house or on an official honeymoon didn't mean that they couldn't discuss things like that. They would need to eventually. Sooner, she supposed, was better than later.

So they managed to both pull themselves out of the bed they were using and begin to get ready to leave this place just as if it was any day at their house and they were getting ready to go to the shop. She showered first then changed when it was his turn. While she was at it she stripped the bed because she was mortified at the idea of anyone sneaking in and using the place that they had. Then she packed their bags again and-

Strange. Had she put the dagger back into her bag? She could remember taking it out last night and setting it aside when she'd put that night gown on, but…had she put it back in her bag? She must have. It was here. Wrapped in that same scarf she'd put it in when they'd left home. Right with the rest of their things. She was being ridiculous, paranoid. Maybe at some point today the two of them could also find some time to breech the subject of the two of them hiding the dagger again or giving it some proper protection at the very least because this wasn't going to work for their eternity!

"Belle?" his voice behind her made her jump as she glanced over at him, standing by his own bag, dressed in a new wrinkle free shirt and tie, grabbing his jacket to put back on as he looked her over. He was put together again, perfect and spotless. He was Mr. Gold. And, she supposed, that made her, for the first time in Storybrooke, Mrs. Gold. She didn't look half bad to play that role. Though she did wish she'd thought more about the temperatures before they'd left. Optimistically, she'd packed a white sleeveless shirt, but considering the cool temperature in the air it wasn't exactly going to be very helpful. But Ruby had let her borrow her coat this long, hopefully she wouldn't mind just a little bit longer. And so he finally helped her back into her coat, the two of them gathered up their bags, and they left the house the way that they came.

Away from the peninsula, the woods, the well, back through the streets that were abnormally dark. No street lights. No stop lights. It was quiet. Almost too quiet for Storybrooke. She had to remind herself that it was still early, that if it was only a few hours later the town would be flooded with people and the sun would have provided more than enough light. As it was, after they parked their car, all she could do was wrap the coat tighter around her for comfort and hang tight to his elbow in the dark so that she didn't over react when the shadows did strange things in the dark.

"Not having power never used to make me nervous in the Enchanted Forest."

"Well, you always had a fire handy to make a torch if necessary," he muttered beside her. "That's not exactly the case in this land." True though not always entirely accurate. In the castle she'd never really had to have a torch handy because the fireplaces always came to life again in her presence, thanks to him! What she wouldn't give for a fireplace and a flammable stick right now!

"Belle," he stopped suddenly, just short of the shops door, his eyes trained on something that she knew right away wasn't good.

"What?" she questioned.

"The lock's been tampered with," he explained. Timidly he reached out a hand to twist the knob. "The door's open, the lock broken," he informed her before protectively placing himself between the shop and her and letting the door open for them. "Somebody's been here," Rumple muttered, despite that nothing popped out at them, nothing dangerous attacked when they entered. For all she knew that meant that there was nothing wrong then…right? Instinctively she followed him inside and checked the light switch, but it was pointless. Magic or not there was no electricity even in his shop. She turned to look at her husband, to tell him she'd find some candles when she spotted a pale face in the darkness. If she didn't recognize him immediately she would have startled but at this point she knew those features too well and could never mistake him. He wasn't a threat. He was merely…upset? He was sitting there by the glass case, scowling at the two of them. Or just her, because when she turned to look at Rumple she realized that he was still too busy investigating the broken lock on the door to notice himself.

Somebody had been here and still was. Henry.

"Yes, I…" she reached out for him, and when he turned to glance back at her his eyes finally caught a glimpse of his grandson. "I think he'd like some of your attention," she realized as the pair stared at each other. His attention. Not hers. If he'd wanted to find her he would have broken into the library, not the shop. So she figured it was best to give them both a bit of privacy and look for the candles in the back room.

Scowling as he was he hadn't completely forgotten his manners. With a small hand wave and a nod of the head that was too much like Neal for comfort he acknowledged her as she crossed the room.

It took everything she had not to be brought down by that nod, to raise a hand back and say "hey" before she disappeared into the back and sat down on the cot to catch her breath. He was more like his father than he knew. More like his father than she supposed he ever would know! And that was too tragic for her to begin to contemplate so soon after losing his father.

"Hey Henry!" she heard Rumple bellow. He was trying to sound friendly but she could hear the nerves alive in his voice, the awkwardness and uncertainty in the smallest of wavers. If it was anyone else she wouldn't let herself eavesdrop, she'd look for the candles and spend too much time lighting them to distract herself but…it was Henry. Neal's son. And instead of leaving this new timid relationship on a tight rope for their first time ever, she listened, became their safety net. Just in case either of them needed her to make a sudden reappearance and help. "I assume there's a reason you're uh...camping inside my shop," he went on as she heard the clatter of his keys on the glass case. He was trying to be casual. That was probably good. But Mr. Gold, Rumpelstiltskin, wasn't the best at casual non-threatening conversation.

"My memories…I want them back," Henry declared quickly.

"Well…" she heard Rumple sigh at his confusing outburst. Hadn't Henry gotten his memories back? "They were returned to you by your mother. If anything is still missing, that's probably down to playing too many video games," he laughed, trying to make a joke just as he would in any awkward situation. She felt herself smile at his attempt. It wasn't bad. For his first time talking to him on his own he wasn't doing bad at all. No one seemed to be scarred at least. Yet.

"No, I want my fake memories back," Henry insisted with desperation in his tone. No one was scarred yet. Henry wanted his fake memories back. That was a correction she hadn't expected! "Of being in New York when I was happy, when I had forgotten about Storybrooke and my mom." Her heart felt like an iron hand had seized it and was squeezing. Neal. He wanted to forget Neal too? "I want those back. Or totally new fake ones. I just wanna forget." No. No she couldn't let that happen. She couldn't let him forget his father and this was just too important a topic for grandfather and grandson to have as their first real conversation. Rumple needed her help!

She stood up and was half way to the curtain when she heard his voice come through again, crystal clear. "I see…so has something happened with your mother?" he asked. She stopped in her tracks at that question, curious to see where it would lead them. It was good. She'd expected him to just deny the boy's request as he would anyone else but trying to get to the heart of the matter…that was good! Maybe he didn't need her like she thought. He recognized his grandson wasn't just trying to make a bad deal but that there was something more going on and he was trying to get to the true issue. It wasn't as subtle as she would have been, but it wasn't bad either. It was an important conversation and for now…they were both doing alright despite Henry's intentions.

"Yeah, she's being a jerk!" Henry snapped back.

Outside Rumple gave a little chuckle at the childish comment. "And of your mothers we're speaking of…"

"Regina," he answered. "I don't want any memories of her can you do that?" he pressed.

"Well of course." She panicked again and had one foot out the door by the time she heard him finish with "but I won't." That was the right answer, the best thing to say…but was she sure that they could do without her? That he could convince him not to give up his memories gently. She glanced back to her cot, part of her mind telling her to give them space and let them sort it out for themselves all the while another part told her to get out there and solve this for them. Stay? Go? In the end she just felt endlessly stuck standing by that curtain.

"You see..." Rumple went on in her absence, "the truth is memories are more often bad than good. We make mistakes and throughout our lives there's no avoiding them. And they're woven into a…a heavy cloak of regret that we wear until we die. Believe me, mine is heavier than most," he whispered sadly. "But it's bearing it that makes you learn, makes you strong." Slowly cautiously she felt herself take a single step closer to the cot. He was himself. Not Mr. Gold or the Dark One, he was the true self that he rarely revealed to anyone but her and the fact that Henry had him talking about things like regret and memories and mistakes…she was suddenly more interested in that than anything.

"Have you learned?" she heard Henry ask him. There was still bite in his tone. But he had his grandfather's genuine curiosity as well. That wasn't hard to hear. He was willing to listen and gently she took another step back in the growing silence.

"It's a gradual process," he answered after a minute. A gradual process? Yes, she supposed that was one way that she could put it for him. It certainly hadn't happened over night or all at once. He still might not be done with it, but so long as he hung in there with her, he'd make it. She knew he would.

"Well, I don't want to be strong. I want to forget," Henry insisted again.

"Even if that means losing all the memories that make you  _you_?" Rumple asked. There was another long silence on the other end of the curtain. One that broke her backward motion. "No…come on," she finally heard him rebut gently. She hadn't heard Henry say anything but she could only guess that meant he'd answered in the positive, that it was a trade Henry was willing to make at the moment. It was sad. Terribly sad. What about Neal?! "You only think you can't stand it," Rumple corrected from behind the divide, "but you can. You know why? You have the lineage of the Dark One. Plus the blood of the Savior runnin' through your veins."

"Does that mean something?" Henry asked skeptically, hopefully. She felt the back of the cot brush against the back of her legs and automatically took her seat again.

"Time will tell," Rumple replied. "But only if you let things unfold as they ought. Trust me Henry. You head on home."

She quickly wiped a tear from her eye at the pronouncement. The end had come quickly, probably not as smoothly as it should have but considering where they'd been and what they'd talked about, that was unimportant. He'd done it. He'd had a positive good conversation with his grandson that didn't end in Henry wandering away from the store waiting to go back home to New York. She was proud of him. Proud of the job that he'd done. And she wasn't the only one who would be.

"I think they can do it Neal," she muttered under her breath. "I think they're going to be just fine." Neal. He was a teenager, right around Henry's age, when he'd gone through that portal and Rumple had lost a son. Maybe, just maybe, Henry was an unexpected second chance to pick up where he'd left off. She had to stifle a laugh at that realization. Not even she could have anticipated that!

"Oh, and uh..." his voice rose up from behind the curtain again, making her tense immediately as she waited to see what more would come. They'd come so far she hoped that he wouldn't do anything harmful now! "You'll pay me back," he insisted, "for the broken lock."

Now it was her turn. She could go out and insist he take that back…but she wouldn't. Instead she smiled as she shook her head at his ridiculousness. Grandfather or not, some things would never change. She certainly couldn't ask him to behave in a way that wasn't like him. She wanted Henry to get to know his Grandfather not a false mask of a grandfather. Besides, paying for a broken lock might not have been such a terrible punishment for breaking and-

"That wasn't me," Henry claimed quickly. "It was open when I got here."

She expected a rebuttal, some clever turn of phrase for him to catch him in the lie but…the sound of the door opening and closing reached her ears and she realized that he'd let Henry go without saying anything more about it. She hadn't been able to see him, see his face or expression when he'd accused him of breaking the lock and she certainly didn't know Henry's tone of voice well enough to know if he was telling the truth from his statements alone! But…if Rumple didn't stop him from leaving, if he didn't call him out on a lie…that could only mean…Rumple thought Henry was telling the truth!

There were footsteps outside again, Rumple's; suddenly she scrambled up, remembering that she was supposed to be lighting candles not listening to the two of them no matter how well-intended her snooping had been! "What was that all about?" she questioned, managing to get two or three candles upright and a set of matches in her hand only a second before he appeared at the curtain.

"Oh that was nothing," he excused quickly, "just a bit of typical teenage angst we can expect in the years to come from our young grandson."

Their grandson. Not "my grandson". It was official now, in a way that it hadn't been days ago. It wasn't a question. She was his grandmother. Step-grandmother. And she imagined that was far more overwhelming now than it had been days ago as well! She was a grandmother! She barely looked her age to begin with! At least the age she would have looked if the curse hadn't stopped time. The age she felt. The age that…a grandmother! No matter how old she was or looked it didn't make sense because she simply didn't feel old enough to be a grandparent and yet-

"You were right to bring us back here though," Rumple muttered, coming up behind her and grabbing more candles to light. "Henry wasn't the one to break the lock. Someone else has been here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone's been in the shop...the plot thickens. Dun, dun, DUN! Yeah, okay that took things too far. So...what do you think? Remember, deleted scenes and extended scenes that are released by A&E are canon so I add them into Moments when I get the chance. About the only good thing about the 4A story line was that they gave us deleted scenes ALL the time so I didn't have to wait for the DVD release. When I saw this one, this beautiful touching moment with Rumple...I just had to add it. And really, it's not beyond the realm of possibility for Belle to be listening, purposefully or not. It's not as if the shop is huge if you'll recall. Sound travels...yada, yada, yada. I hope you enjoy it. And the throw back to Neal, I told you that would come up again.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	12. Simply a Strange Coincidence

The moment the shop was filled with candlelight the topic at hand turned to who would have been in the shop and why? Nothing was destroyed, so unlike the time Hook had broken in and let his anger get the better of him she assumed this meant that it hadn't been personal. Which could only mean one thing. Someone had entered the shop to steal something. What?

She looked around but nothing appeared to be missing. Then again the light wasn't perfect, it was still dark and even in the time she'd spent here she couldn't say for certain one way or the other that things looked out of place!

"Is anything missing?" she questioned Rumple when she joined him in the big room.

He shook his head. "Not obviously, but it's hard to say for certain when nothing is where I remember putting it..." he grumbled.

She rolled her eyes at him. He was still sore over the reorganization that she'd done in his absence. To be fair, she hadn't known he'd been alive then and she'd needed desperately to find Neal. She'd made the shop her own while he'd been gone and compared to how he had kept it before…"It's not all that bad," she reasoned with him.

"No, it's…it's certainly cleaner than usual…not to mention logical and well-thought out." Terrible as his jovial rambling was it did ease her nerves for one reason. If he was joking like this, not tense or agitated, then that meant he wasn't deeply worried about the break in. If something was missing they'd find it. They simply needed to take a quick inventory to figure out what it was and fortunately the box of note cards Mr. Gold had kept on every item in this shop, the one she'd updated in the last week, was also newly organized to make everything easier for them. She just needed to fetch it.

"But fortunately for the pair of us Mr. Gold is an excellent business man and does have a way to identify inventory…" his ramblings trailed off suddenly and when she glanced behind her to see if everything was alright she found him staring at her, flabbergasted. She'd been one step ahead of him it seemed. That didn't happen often. "Perhaps I should just change the name of the store to 'Mrs. Gold's'," he muttered sarcastically as she took up the space next to him.

"'Mr. & Mrs.' will do just fine," she whispered reaching up to kiss him on his cheek. But before she could pull away he reached over and kissed her deeply again making her beam. "Are we investigating or honeymooning?" she questioned after a moment.

"Until someone else comes in that door, a little bit of both."

"That's what I thought," she commented before she began to explain the system she'd put in place for them. They were still his note cards, the ones that he'd made or the curse had made for him, she'd just updated and reorganized them by sections of the store. Glass cases, walls, rafters, shelves, and finally the back room. If there was a quicker way to do it she'd yet to find any, the best they could do was pick a case and start working their way around the room. So they took the stack, started by the door, and began going through items one by one. It was dull, there was no doubt about that. But every time she looked up and saw him there beside her, giving her a smile of happiness she found herself beaming and wondered how she could ever think something as great as this was dull.

They made their way around the room that way. Slowly. And by the time morning came they were behind the front counter half way done with the glass cases which both of them knew would take much longer than anything else. After this, the larger, bulkier items would be much easier. Now the back room would be another story. But, so far, they were getting the job done. Only nothing was missing yet. They just couldn't find-

Her fingers went numb as she looked at a card in her hand. Or rather stared slack jawed at it. The picture that was on it was what truly caught her eye. A silver necklace in the shape of the snowflake. She'd only seen a necklace like this once…in another life.

Anna.

Had this really been here the entire time? Was her tunnel vision when she'd been hunting for something to find Neal so bad she hadn't noticed it? No. This wasn't possible. It couldn't possibly be-

"Is everything alright?" he asked her, snapping her out of stillness. Now if only she could get her mind to work, her fingers and body to feel again! Was everything alright? Now?

"Um…yes," she said forcing a smile as she tried to calm herself down. No everything hadn't been alright in the past but that was the past, this was the future, her present. No, it wasn't perfect, but she was alright. Wasn't she? Right here right now? "Yes, it's…pretty is all," she excused looking at the picture. Pretty was one word. Eerie was another. Anna. It had been years, decades really since she'd thought of her that day! Truly thought about it and not just in passing. It had always felt like a black stain on her soul, but over time it had receded. Now? Now it felt like it had the day it had happened! This…this couldn't be the same one! Could it? "Where did you get this?" she questioned, looking over at him.

"Well, what does the card say?" he asked, glancing over her shoulder at it innocently enough. He acted as though she'd managed to fool him. Then again, he never had reason to think that she'd try to fool him. She'd never lied to him.

"It's just…" she looked down at the little the card said. Two paragraphs. Four lines total.  _"Silver. Cut well. Damaged. Slightly burned. Slightly warped. Repairable. Fair condition. Current price: $200. Estimated repair costs: $150. Fully restored price: $300. Additional Notes: The repair isn't profitable but should someone buy it refer the buyer to jewelry repair so they can spend the extra fifty dollars themselves."_

"It's just information," she commented looking the card over. "Nothing about who sold it to you-"

"Well," he sighed. "If I don't remember it being part of my collection and there is nothing about who sold it to me it must have found its way here in the curse," he explained away. "That does tend to happen in this town."

"Right…" she drawled.  _"Items seem to gravitate here during the curse."_  She'd said that once…to Zelena, but she'd said it all the same. Things did tend to find their way here. This necklace…it didn't mean anything. She'd never actually gotten a good glimpse at Anna's but she knew that it was never burned or warped like this. It wasn't the same one. It just…it wasn't.

"Right, of course," she agreed quickly setting the card down in the discard pile. There had to be a dozen snowflake necklaces in the world. After all this time she was just imagining things. Anna was a terrible mistake, something in her past. It was far behind her. The least she could do was take her own advice, the advice that she'd given to Rumple a dozen times, and never let her past frighten her like this again!

"I think I'll make some tea soon," she sighed. "Maybe go over to the apartment and get us something to eat."

"Well, that sounds like a lovely idea."

"And I suppose I should take the library sign down while I'm there," she mumbled on. Maybe if she talked she could get the terrible card out of her mind. But what she'd said…she hadn't expected _that_  to pop out of her mouth! And from the surprised look on his face, he hadn't either. But...she might not have planned on it, but some how she knew that thought had been in the back of her head a lot longer than she'd realized. The library was a dream, a wonderful dream, one that she still had but at the moment it seemed distant. She supposed that it had seemed distant for a while. "I put that up last year," she explained to him and she supposed to herself, "when opening it was imminent. Now…" What a depressing thought. Now she had no idea when she'd get it up and ready to go. So much had changed since then. Now she was married and-

"I don't think you should give up on it so soon," he commented next to her, continuing to sort through card after card.

"I'm not giving up on it," she answered honestly. "I just think…maybe…maybe now isn't a good time. In a few months, after some time has passed, for us, once we've had some time to get things settled, maybe then it'll be time again to think about opening it. Until then I'll still go over and clean and organize…"

"Be a librarian," he muttered beside her. "If that's truly what you want, I won't stop you, and I won't say that I wouldn't enjoy spending more time with you after everything we've been through…" With another sigh he finally nodded his head in understanding. "We'll wait a few months. And I'll take the sign down for you. For some reason you on a ladder makes me nervous."

She laughed at that, finally happy that she'd gotten her mind off the unpleasantness of Anna, finally happy to be getting back to things. She wasn't saying she'd never open the library again she was just saying that she wanted to spend more time with her husband first, in the shop and at home, enjoying being newly married, rather than breaking her back to open a library that, in the end, she'd probably use more than anyone. It was a hard choice…but in the end it was a good one…she hoped.

Suddenly the bell to the shop chimed and when she lifted her head she saw David and Hook striding into the room with determination and she braced herself for whatever their purpose might be. People barging into the store, especially them, was never a good thing. "It appears our honeymoon is over," Rumple growled unpleasantly next to her.

"Yeah, there's an emergency," David responded. Of course there was an emergency. There was always an emergency. He wouldn't be here if there wasn't an emergency! This was why they'd gone to the stranger's house. Because if they'd stayed at the cabin one way or another, they would have been found. "Emma's trapped under ice by a woman with some kind of ice magic." That was a somewhat serious emergency. Maybe this was one of the reasons they'd come back, because the others would need them for-

"And this involves me because…"

"You're the bloody Dark One do something!" Hook demanded, already fighting with her husband.

"Well I could melt the ice and destroy it with a thought but that would also destroy your girlfriend is that what you want?!"

Hook and Rumple in a room together would never be a good thing. Emergency or not! They needed to calm things down! Now!

"No one's destroying anyone," David insisted, throwing a protective hand out between Rumple and Hook at the same time she'd reached over and tried to calm Rumpelstiltskin before either could do something they'd regret. Not that it mattered. If the two of them went at it a glass case and a hand wasn't going to be enough to hold either of them back.

"Now the woman who has Emma trapped is in there with her and she's looking for her sister, name of…Anna. She thinks she's in town because of something she found here in your shop. A necklace."

Her heart stopped.

No. No it couldn't be the same one. The one she'd just looked at. That was too much of a coincidence. She'd see that, think of Anna, and someone would come in looking for her on the very same day?! No! No, it wasn't true! But…

She could prove it. She could prove that her mind was playing tricks on her right here and now. She immediately went back through the cards, realizing she'd placed it in the pile without ever even thinking to search it out in the case. There! She found the same snowflake necklace that she'd noticed before and handed it over to the pair of them. "Is that it?" she questioned.

Hook took it first, but after a second David's glance became too concentrated and he snatched the card from Hooks hand. "Wait!" he exclaimed. She held her breath as she waited for the identification, for what she feared it could be and hoped it wasn't. "I know this," David finally declared. "I know exactly who Anna is!" he declared.

"Wonderful," Hook drawled, "perhaps you wouldn't mind filling the rest of us in so we can bloody well save your daughter!"

"Perhaps you wouldn't mind filling everyone else in outside of my shop," Rumple requested with his typical coldness.

"No!" she insisted, staring at David, "Wait, wait, who…who is she? Anna?"

"Joan." David stated.

"Joan?" Hook questioned.

"Joan?" she echoed, confused.

"Not Anna?" Hook clarified.

"Yes, Joan, and…yes, Anna," he stated nodding at her. "I met her a long time ago in our land. She told me her name was Joan, I always knew it was a fake name, that she was lying, but she never did tell me who she was exactly. Or why she was on my door step in the first place, but she helped me…and she was…Gold I need your help."

"I assumed," he drawled.

"Bo Peep, you know who she is right, who she was, in our world…her staff where is it?"

"What makes you think that I've got it?"

"Because you have everything!" David reasoned. Even in the midst of panic she couldn't help but smirk because David had spoken the truth. "I need that staff to find Anna and save Emma."

Next to her, Rumple was silent for a long while, staring up at David with dark eyes. He never had taken to being told what to do. But…she had to know, she had to hear the rest of the story, she had to know that this wasn't her Anna! So she reached out and touched his hand, trying to beg him with her eyes to answer them. Finally, after glancing at her, he sighed. "That particular piece of magic left my shop almost as soon as the first curse broke. I haven't seen it since."

"Really?" David asked skeptically. "You really just let someone walk off with it?"

"It didn't match my eyes," Rumple snapped back smoothly. "It's magic was far from useful, big and long it was inefficient, nothing I needed, so I sold it back into the hands of the woman it belonged to soon after she remembered who she was."

"Bo Peep. You just sold her staff back to her? Just like that?"

"Well seeing as how she's been little trouble since the curse broke I've never come to regret my decision. She was a war lord and a pathetic one at that. She owes me a bigger mortgage on her little shop than anyone else on her street, perhaps a little bullying, a taste of her own medicine, reformed her a bit."

"Okay, reformed or not, Gold. I need that staff. Now! Where is she? Who is she?!"

"What do I get in return for the information I have," he asked casually.

"Rumple!" she snapped. No. He didn't do this anymore! He didn't make deals when it came to people's lives-

"I go away," David breathed before she could say anything. "…at least until the next time I need something. I go away and the two of you can get back to…your honeymoon?" he questioned looking at her, his eyes darting down to the ring she now wore on her finger. Well…now the others knew. Or would know she supposed. "Gold please…" David begged looking at him. "Emma…we don't have a lot of time!"

"Then I believe the woman you're looking for currently goes by the name Shari Lewis. She's the owner of the butchery, The Lamb Chop. You'll have to ask her where your staff is."

"Thank you!" David breathed pushing away from the counter. "Thank you, thank you!" The next sound was the bell chiming and the door closing, leaving her staring down at the card in her hand with nothing but questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh...okay, so...the library. This gave me more of a headache than anything in this fiction. The deleted scene from 4x04 shows Belle talking to Gold about opening the library up again BUT 3x22 the sign that the library will be opening soon is there and in 4x02 it's not anymore. Somewhere in 4x01 the sign disappears. And yes, I know this is a mistake and all it means is that someone on the crew forgot to put it up, but sadly for me the missing sign is canon and so I had to do something with it. Her deciding to spend more time with Rumple and take it slow seemed like a good idea for getting the sign down and for getting back to the library in 4x04...well I guess you'll just have to see what we do with that. And for this chapter...I'm so sorry I hope I got everyone's character right. David I think I'm fine on, Hook...jury's out. But the beginning there...I'm sorry I just had to change that a bit. Or, not change it exactly, but explain it a little more because things just seem to come far to easily for Belle sometimes. "We need this!" "Here, without much effort I just so happen to have what you are looking for in m hand!" And yes, I know it's not good for TV and there's only 42 minutes...but I wanted to bring the necklace up a little earlier in the chapter so when David asks her about something missing it's a lot less out of the blue.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	13. Their Peace of Normal

It wasn't her Anna. It wasn't the one she'd…

No. It wasn't her.

Anna was a common name.

Yes, her Anna had spoken of a sister…but lots of people had sisters! Besides, this sister seemed intent on just seeing Anna! That was all she'd requested to give Emma back. Anna had talked more about a problem with her Aunt than her sister.

And her mother. Of course her mother. They'd bonded over that. But…

But the fact that Anna had a sister didn't make her the same Anna they'd gone out to look for just now. The fact that Anna was missing…

No, that didn't mean anything either. Lots of people were displaced in Storybrooke. It was entirely possible that this Anna had just been at home wondering where her own sister was until David and Hook found them. They'd be reunited, they'd rescue Emma, the power would come back on, things would be fine!

She'd gone over those facts over and over again as she made them lunch in the apartment. She'd repeated them in her head as she continued to check the inventory while they ate in silence. It was those facts that kept her too busy to talk to him about the deal he'd made with David for information. By dinner she knew those facts backward and forward. And as they ate in the candlelight she'd almost managed to entirely convince herself it was all true except…

It was just the one missing item from the shop. That snowflake necklace. What were the chances that both Anna's would wear a snowflake necklace? Really?

"You've been awfully quiet all day," Rumple muttered as the curtains flapped in his wake. She looked up from her place on the back cot. They should have left to go home hours ago but she just couldn't bring herself to as long as the power was out. She'd explained that to him when he suggested it, he'd nodded and continued to work in the front while she'd come back here, repeated those useless facts in her head over and over again, and finally grabbed a book and a candle to read it by just to give herself something new to think about.

It wasn't working.

"Just reading," she shrugged. "Waiting for the lights to come back on like normal."

He smiled at her and for a second she worried. They could read one another's mind, did that mean he knew she was…lying. For the first time in her life she was lying to him! But…

She never lied to him.

"Well," he sighed before reaching up into a cabinet and pulling out a couple of blankets. "I'm sorry to inform you that you live in a place where normalcy is fleeting." He spread one of the blankets out and wrapped it around her shoulders for her before taking a place next to her and spreading the final blanket over their laps. "What are you working on?" he inquired glancing at the spell book she'd taken from the shelves. It was one of the few that he actually kept in the shop because it was so simple it was harmless, one she'd read a dozen times over the last week as she'd searched for what Zelena was doing.

Now it was just something to do.

"Laws of magic," she muttered, looking down at the pages in her lap. He probably had it memorized. But if there was anything this recent experience had taught her it was, that while she could always depend on him to be there for her, she couldn't always count on him being around to help her with stuff like this. She was married to the Dark One, and she really should have just submitted to the fact that she needed to know this long before she had. Long before Zelena ever had-

"Belle…" suddenly she felt him move beside her. He reached forward, shut the book, and took it from her hands placing it behind him on the cot so it was out of sight. She glanced over, with his quick actions and sharp tone she half expected to see him looking angry or upset, though why she wasn't quite sure why. But instead he only looked down at her lovingly as he moved impossibly closer to her. "I really don't want to talk about magic right now," he insisted, but she could see the pleading in his eyes. He didn't want to think about magic, the subject that had once been his safe space was suddenly his prison, and she understood why he didn't want to talk about it but if they didn't talk about something, then…Anna.

"What would you like to think about?" she asked quickly with a gentle smile.

His hand was suddenly against her cheek, his thumb lightly rubbing as he whispered, "Anything but magic."

No magic. No Anna. No necklace. No power. No Zelena or Neverland or Oz or forest…that was all magic. What could they talk about that wasn't magic?

So she moved and buried her cheek against the material of his vest, and let the smell of his mild cologne wash over her. Something that didn't have to do with magic. Or Anna. That was hard when David's visit was the first and only thing that crossed her mind.

"I don't know how you did it," she muttered against him.

"Did what?" he asked, holding her closer and moving a hand through her hair gently.

"Tolerated being at the beck and call of everyone who ever needed something for years...centuries!" She felt the arm that was holding her tense for a second before returning to normal. Maybe that hadn't been a topic far enough away from magic as she'd thought.

"I did it by knowing there was something waiting at the end of it for me. Baelfire. Now you," he muttered placing a kiss on her head and sighing deeply.

"They need you all the time," she remarked, remembering what it was like to have everyone just barge right in on her when he'd been gone expecting update after update! "They never show appreciation they just expect you to have all the answers. There's never a minute of peace."

"You find different ways to obtain peace, to experience calm and comfort. This works perfectly fine for me. You are my peace."

"And you are mine," she whispered, beaming as he tightened her grip and held her closer.

He sighed contently in the dark and she felt him kiss the top of her head as he rubbed her back. He liked holding her and frankly she liked being held by him. It was normal.

But Anna…

"You think we'll ever have a normal life?" she asked quickly, before her past could creep in and ruin their present. "You think there will ever be a time that we don't have to worry about magic, or deals, or requests? Daggers?"

She felt him give a little snort beneath her cheek. "A few days ago I would have said 'no', but now-"

Suddenly there was something glowing from out in the shop that caught their attention. And something pouring in the windows from the streets.

Light.

Light! She'd flipped the switch in the shop this morning out of habit and hadn't turned it off. The power was back on! And if the power was back on…

"The lights are back on," he observed for her. "That's a good sign." A good sign indeed.

It worked! Emma wasn't trapped under ice anymore. The woman holding her must have gotten her sister back. And that could only mean one thing!

It really wasn't her Anna.

"I guess they found what they were looking for?" she suggested feeling utterly relieved. Rumpelstiltskin nodded and rose from the place she was, blew out the candle they'd been sitting with, and flipped on the switch for the lights in the back room. After so much time with just a single candle she had to shield her eyes the bright light hurt so much! But it was a good sign. A very good sign!

"I can't promise we'll ever have a normal life, I can't promise that we'll always have peace beyond each other, we'll always have to take what we can. But I can give you normalcy in some ways," he whispered reaching out and offering a hand for her. "Tonight, for example…would you like to go home Mrs. Gold?"

She felt herself sigh with relief. It was nothing to be relieved about she supposed, nothing to be happy about. The past had still happened, Anna was still dead, and she…she could just go back to handling her past the way she had been since she'd decided to leave it all behind.

She'd go with him.

She'd go home.

"Always," she replied, taking the hand he offered and allowing him to pull her up so he could kiss her once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Filler chapter. But...fluffy filler chapter in a way. I just wanted to finish the arc for this episode for her and send her home thinking that things were back to normal, but I also want to begin putting 4x06 into play as well. In the show Belle went from 0 to 60 in about 2 seconds. I won't deny it, we all know it happened. And when she got to 60 she did something...appalling, frankly. I'm not going to have her go 0-60. I'm going to stress her out. I'm going to give her guilt and inner turmoil over this, I want to show this eating her up inside so that when we finally arrive at 4x06 and she does the unthinkable it's less a shock and more the moment that she finally snaps under the pressure of it all. Still no excuse, but I hope that my version of events in Belle's head will be better displayed than the show was.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	14. The Guilty Party

"Beautiful Belle…my darling Belle, it's morning. I love you my sweet Belle will you wake up for me? Beautiful Belle-"

"I might just choose to stay asleep if you keep saying such wonderful things," she whispered into his murmurings, eyes still closed. Even without sight she knew that she was in their bed, not on the couch where they'd fallen asleep last night after coming home from the day at the shop. It was strange how exhausting something as simple as worrying could leave a person. After she'd fallen asleep she hadn't even registered returning to their room. That must have been his doing. Magic or not she couldn't bring herself to care; she just wanted to keep holding tight to him.

"We've both slept long enough," he whispered against her.

Finally she opened her eyes to the daylight and glanced up at him from her place against him. "It's not the sleep I'm enjoying," she whispered back. But nevertheless, they couldn't stay in bed and "not sleep" much longer. They'd showed their faces yesterday officially marking the end of their honeymoon. It was time for the two of them to go on and be Mr. and Mrs. somewhere besides here. So with reluctance from both of them they got up and got ready for the day. And getting ready, as little experience as they had doing it might have been her new favorite thing. So simple and yet…there was so much that went into it. And so much to learn! There were so many opportunities for more wonderful things to be said.

She stood by the closet as she finished buttoning her blouse, watching him fiddle with his tie in the mirror. Normally it was one of the times she knew she'd spend admiring him but instead Lacey seemed unhappy with something it took her only a second to identify. It was the tie. His shirt was black, his jacket was black, his vest black, and his tie was blue? It wasn't a terrible choice, nobody would notice. They'd think he'd look terrifying as always and she always thought he was dashing and handsome, but Lacey…she couldn't help herself. She glanced back at the long line of them that he had, automatically identified the one far more appropriate and marched out to him just as he was tightening it around his throat.

"Here," she stated, boldly loosening it for him and pulling it free. "Try this one."

He sighed as he turned his collar up, then let his hands fall away as she placed it around his neck and tied it for him with remarkable ease. "I'll never understand this fascination women have with dressing me," he mumbled watching her in the mirror as she worked.

Her fingers stopped where they were and she looked up at him nervously. Women. Dressing him? Was it a bad thing, as his tone implied? Was this something that bothered him? Something that had poor memories attached to it? She'd never thought to ask that before!

"I'm…I'm sorry, I didn't realize…I shouldn't have…I didn't know you minded!"

"Belle," his hands covered her own where they were and he gazed down calmly into her eyes with a gentle smile that told her the comment had been just as much a witty remark as a casual observance. "With others I mind. With you...I figure Lacey gave you many great talents and I may as well use them to my advantage no matter how shallow and vain those advantages may seem."

She let out a relieved breath as she watched him and felt a smile spread across her face. That seemed fair enough. After all, she used Lacey for the same reasons. But still…women? Dressing him?! "Well," she smiled as he released her hands and bore his throat so she could finish the knot, "women can dress you all they like as far as I'm concerned, so long as I'm the only one that gets to undress you."

A wicked smile bloomed over his face. "Night after night without fail," he whispered.

She smiled and stood on tip-toe to kiss him before going back to the closet with a blush and finishing their jobs before they left for town. They fell into silence along the way, something wonderful and comforting to both of them. Some people didn't need to talk. They'd mastered the ability to share the same space in complete silence decades ago in his castle and they could continue on until there was absolutely something that needed to be said and then-

Something was wrong.

When someone was standing outside the shop like that waiting for them something was always wrong. When it was Emma and Hook with a strange woman dressed in blue that she'd never seen before then she knew that something was beyond wrong. "Rumple…"

"I see them," he sighed as they drove passed the shop and found a place to leave the car. She stayed by his side, her hand hooked on his arm the entire time they walked down the street to meet the people obviously waiting for them there. "Ms. Swan?" he questioned the closer they got. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"It's not a 'what' it's 'who'," Emma answered dryly.

"It's me," the woman in blue breathed stepping up behind Emma making her shake her head in confusion. She really did hate riddles and puzzles.

"I'm…I'm sorry what is this all about?" she asked Emma, looking from Hook to the woman in blue and back again. Emma stared at her for a moment, then looked back at Rumple by her side.

"You sure you want to do this in front of her?" she asked him. Did he want to do this front of her? Really?! From Emma of all people?! After all they'd been through, after all she'd done for her, this was  _still_ an issue?! Fine. If that was going to be the question she knew just how to answer it, the way that he'd want her to. She rolled her eyes at the woman's suggestion, pulled her keys out of her bag, then walked between them to finally open the shop and let everyone inside herself.

"Did that answer your question, Ms. Swan?" she heard her husband growl as he followed her in. What else did Emma really expect to happen? Did she really think she'd just leave them after a comment like that?! "Now I'll ask you again or else I'll have to ask you to leave my shop. What can I do for you Ms. Swan?"

Emma's eyes widened as she looked between her and Rumpelstiltskin absolutely shocked at what he'd said. "You've got to be kidding me," she exclaimed finally. "What you can do is tell me about her!" she shouted pointing to the woman in blue. "You can tell us what you did to her sister!"

Her stomach did another of those flops in her gut and she looked at Rumple who looked utterly unmoved by Emma's pleas. Her sister. This was still about Anna? She was still missing? "I'm sorry, but I haven't the faintest idea of what you're talking about-"

"The urn!" Emma interrupted. "The one from that room in your castle, the one with no windows, no doors…"

Recognition flashed over his face and she felt her jaw drop as she suddenly realized what they were talking about. "The vault? You know about that?"

Emma nodded. "When we went back in time, he sent us there. Inside there was an urn, it came back with us,  _she_ came out of it! Now…her name is Elsa and we heard her sisters heartbeat with that staff you gave my father so I've been up all night trying to figure out where her sister is and the only explanation I can come up with is that you did something to Anna when you trapped her in that urn. So I want you to tell us why you trapped her and what you did with her sister!"

Anna was alive!

Her blood ran cold. They'd heard her heartbeat! Had she heard that right? Anna was alive! Not dead! The woman hadn't killed her? The fall hadn't killed her?! She had to bite back a gasp of shock and confusion. She was still missing…but alive?! No. It couldn't be. After all this time-

"I'm sorry to disappoint you but…I've never seen her before in my life," Rumple said dryly.

"So how'd she end up trapped in your urn? Inside your secret little vault of terror?" Emma questioned skeptically, looking almost proud because she'd caught him in a lie.

"Look, if you really want to know how she wound up there, she's standing right beside you Miss Swan," he pointed out defensively looking at Elsa. "Why don't you simply ask her?"

She folded her hands in front of her, watching the scene play out, trying to get a grip on what was happening and make her head stop spinning. Elsa. Her sister was Anna. With a snowflake necklace. Anna was missing. Turn after turn and she knew she couldn't deny it anymore. She didn't know how Elsa had gotten into the urn but she knew Rumple hadn't done anything to Anna.

She had.

"She did," Elsa responded for her. "But I can't remember, something happened to my memories."

"Well," he sighed unamused, "an all too common affliction around these parts…pity," he snapped with a smirk she didn't like but understood all the same. He was wearing a mask, he'd been forced to wear it again out of defense. But it wasn't his fault. It as hers, it was her that needed to say something so why was it so hard to say it, to turn those accusatory glances on her instead of him!

"But as you can see many objects fall into my possession! Urns, necklaces, all manner of things, I can't know the history behind all of them!" he claimed. He was right. He'd said the same thing yesterday when she'd asked him about the necklace and he'd told her to look at the tag. She moved her arms again. This felt like the twelfth time in the last few minutes. She was fidgeting. She never fidgeted. They'd see through her surely! Wasn't it obvious she was telling a lie by saying nothing?! Should she say something? She didn't know where Anna was she didn't even know when she went missing. For all she knew they rescued her from that woman, her aunt, and Anna's recent disappearance...no, there were too many coincidences for this to all be happening again.

"Only if there's something in it for you," Hook accused in his drawl voice again, "right mate?" Hooks voice was like a bucket of cold water poured over her head. It was something in his voice, in his tone that struck her. There was fury in it. Building fury. With the witch gone and everyone safe again their brief truce was coming to an end. She just hoped-

"Yeah, well that may have been true once," he responded gently, so gently it surprised her. "But recently my life has been…turned upside-down," he explained with sad eyes and a small shuffle that reminded her of Neal when he was uncomfortable. The action chased every thought of Anna from her mind and nearly made her burst into tears. "I've lost a son…" he breathed glancing at Emma, "gained a wife…" He was looking at her. And she did her best to smirk, to ignore her sadness at the reminder of Neal but also to erase the guilt she knew was there. He wouldn't be able to see that…would he? "So, you might say, I've decided to turn over a new leaf."

"Don't forget about my super power," Emma added in a threatening tone. Super power? "I'll be able to tell if you're lying." Really? She felt herself fidget again, putting her hands behind her back so that no one would see her wring them. Emma could tell when people lied? Could she see the panic on her face now? Or was it only when someone was lying verbally and not by omission? She hadn't actually said anything yet. Somehow that made it worse in her mind!

"How about I do you one better?" Rumple suggested firmly with a wince of anger in his voice. "Let's simply have Belle use the dagger on me."

She felt herself reel at those words. Had he really just suggested what she thought he'd suggested? "Wha- No!" she shouted reaching for his hands. "No! Rumple, you don't, you don't have to do that-"

"No, no, Ms. Swan wants proof," he stated looking at Emma, "and I'm happy to cooperate."

He might have been happy to cooperate but she wasn't! Regina had given that dagger to her because she knew she wouldn't use it, she'd kept it as a promise he'd never have to fear it again, she never wanted to use him for it or force him to do anything like Zelena ever had! But…

People were looking to her, eyes shifting from her to Rumple, Emma watching her expectantly, and Rumple…his gentle eyes were telling her to do it, giving her permission to use that terrible thing and make him tell them against his will…only…was it truly against his will if it was his idea? Would it be so bad if everyone in this room believed him afterward?

"Fine," she breathed sadly before turning and pulling the thing out of its place in her bag. It was a terrible time to realize it, but they really did need to find another hiding place for it soon now that wasn't her bag. Especially now that they'd all seen her pull it from there and…it felt bad. It didn't feel like it had last time she'd held it, like it had when she'd pulled it out of her bag at that house. It was the guilt. Guilt from Anna, guilt from having it, guilt for what she was about to do…

She didn't know how to work the thing and using it for an order felt strange and awkward. She didn't know how formal the words had to be. Could she just say the words or did she have to be deliberate. She hated that the only time she'd ever seen the dagger used had been for Zelena. She'd tried to block all that out but now she reached back into her mind and tried to remember each horrible time she'd used it on him. Zelena had always held it regally, so there was no doubt in their minds that Rumple had no choice but to obey. She supposed…just this once…to prove to the others… She held it out between the two of them, hating its place there and swallowed deep.

"I command you…Dark One," she sighed hating what she was about to do, "to tell them the truth," she finally ordered. She felt like she could cry.

"The truth is…" he whispered breathlessly staring at Elsa, "just as I said. I had no idea there was someone inside there. I know nothing about Elsa…or her sister." Of course he didn't know because the fault was hers…

The horrible task done she lowered the dagger and pressed her lips together the first chance she got because if someone ever thought to ask her the answer wouldn't be the same. "But I wish you the best of luck finding her," Rumple finished as she held the weight by her side. Could she even say that? What happened when and if they found her? What would they say about her? What would he think of her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the beginning of this chapter...sorry, deep down I know that it probably should have been sentenced to Exile because it's a moment all it's own that we just didn't need for anything really. But without that little tidbit this chapter was just so short. It seemed the perfect way to make it longer and a great way to throw a little extra fluff in there. I hope you don't mind!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	15. Magical Survivals

Emma looked Rumple over skeptically but with enough frustration that she knew using the dagger had worked. Emma believed him. "Alright," Emma sighed. "Mom may be busy with the town meeting but maybe we can pull Dad away, start there, he knew about the shepherds crook maybe we can start from there, try retracing her steps.

"Mary Margaret is having a town meeting?" she questioned. Last time they'd had a town meeting Zelena was on the loose. Was this really as bad as all that? It was horrible for her and for Elsa but for the entire town?! And when, exactly, had Emma started to refer to her parents as "mom" and "dad" for that matter?! How much had they missed?!

"Long story," Emma commented shaking her head, "but apparently Regina has stepped down and since Mary Margaret cast the last curse there is a new mayor in town."

"Fantastic," Rumple muttered sarcastically beside her. "Government officials and law enforcement all residing under one roof."

Emma ignored him and put a hand on Elsa's shoulder. "We're done here, let's go," she muttered.

"One last thing before you go, Ms. Swan!" Rumple called out to them before they could leave. "Where did you leave that urn?"

"Excuse me?" Emma asked, looking him over absolutely confused as to why he was bring it up.

"The urn," he stated. "You found it in my vault and now that you've removed it I'd like it back."

"I destroyed it," the woman in blue, Elsa she supposed, stated from her place next to Emma. There was an unnatural quiet in the room at that announcement, a smirk on Rumple's face that she didn't like, but…then again…she supposed she had no right to judge him anymore. She supposed that she never had.

"That's a lie," he hissed. "That urn is some of the most dangerous complex magic I've ever come across. There is no other reason it was in that vault. It can't be destroyed by simple magic and certainly shouldn't be toyed with-"

"Well, it's what I did," Elsa insisted coolly. "My magic has always been complex, maybe that's why I was able to."

"Wait…I thought you didn't know about the urn?!" Emma questioned.

"Know that someone was in it? No, absolutely not. Know what it does…why else would it be in that vault Ms. Swan? I wasn't about to let someone stumble upon it and put me inside. And now, for the good of all of us that practice magic, yourself included, I need you to take me to where you say you 'destroyed' the urn. It might not be as gone as you think."

Emma and Elsa exchanged glances, glances that made her think they'd known each other a lot longer than just the last few hours. It was like they knew each other, or had been friends forever, rather than just met. They were communicating, asking if they trusted him, if they really wanted to believe him and it tore her up inside because she was the one that wanted to scream out that it was her they shouldn't trust! Her they shouldn't believe!

But it didn't matter in the end, because after a swift nod, Emma looked back at him and said they'd take him there. Hook and Elsa piled into Emma's car, the two of them suddenly found themselves right back where they'd started in his car as they followed her out to the place that she'd only been once before but made her absolutely sick to her stomach. It was the witch's property. Zelena's home. And as they drove along the road that terrible looking storm cellar stuck out like a sore thumb. So many bad memories. Anna, Zelena, top it all off with the dagger and the way her stomach rolled into knot after knot and she was beginning to wish she'd never suggested they come back from that house and they'd simply stayed in a self induced exile. Why couldn't she have just been content to stay there for a week instead of barely a night?!

"There's a barn at the back of the property," Rumple whispered beside her, reaching out for her hand and drawing her gaze away from that terrible manmade scar in the ground. "You've nothing to fear, the portals are gone and Zelena is dead. You saw that for yourself."

Worry. He'd interpreted her silence as worry instead of guilt. Why wouldn't he? She'd never lied to him before. He had no reason to suspect that she would ever hide anything from him. "It's just…" just what? Urn or not she knew why Anna was missing. That it was her fault the girl might have fallen into the wrong hands in the first place?! The words were there, right there on the tip of her tongue and yet the only thing that came out was "I'm just not feeling very well suddenly. I think it's the bumpy road."

"Close your eyes if it helps," he whispered gently beside her, the pressure against her hand tightened, something he was doing to help calm her, and she nearly broke into tears when she closed her eyes and leaned back against the seat. Another lie. She'd barely thought about it this time, it had just happened. Was this how liars were born? Did it all start with an omission or a simple lie and evolve from there to the point that they didn't even know they were lying? That they didn't feel any guilt over it? Was that how he'd started? She hated the fact that she had lied. Even if she wasn't sure it was a true lie.

Questioning whether or not a lie was a lie. That could never be a good thing.

Finally the car stopped running beneath her and when she opened her eyes she was looking at a rundown old barn with a hole burned into the roof. She was smart enough to know that wasn't weather damage, that they'd brought them to the place the portal had been so that must have been the spot where the beam of light had broken through, but even knowing that it just didn't look safe! The thing was practically falling down around them! They really wanted to go inside?!

"You are welcome to stay here if you like?" he suggested next to her.

She shook her head quickly. If she stayed here, if she remained alone with her thoughts, then surely what followed wouldn't be what she wanted it to be. For her own sake, it was better for her to just go with him. Besides, she might learn more about Anna that way. So she got out of his car and followed the rest of the group as they walked up to the barn doors.

"This is where the portal was," Emma announced to them all as they got closer to the barn.

"I remember that part quite well Ms. Swan. I was the one that put it there, if you'll recall," he muttered dryly, as if she'd just said the stupidest thing in the world. Maybe she had, all things considered, but she'd already learned something new that she hadn't meant to. He'd made the time portal! Zelena? With the dagger? She made him do it! She hadn't known that. "The only thing that concerns me now is what happened after…the location of the urn if you please?"

"I came out of it right there," Elsa pointed to the place the urn supposedly had been, the side of a portal. Etched into the dirt looking like a clock…the amount of work that must have taken, for one man to do this alone, without help!

She thought coming in and doing something would help. She was wrong. It only made the past memories press in on her more looking at the pattern she saw etched out in the dirt before her. Forced him to create the time portal, like a clock, seared into the ground…oh she never wanted to see that dagger or be like Zelena ever! Her stomach was nothing but a hard ball of uneasy muscle sitting there in her stomach. She had already done it. This morning.

"Then I just destroyed it," Elsa finished.

"Well we shall see about that," Rumple commented as she stared at the thing suddenly feeling more upset than she had moments ago. This day was just too much! "Belle, may I borrow the dagger please?" Without a thought she quickly unzipped her bag again and handed it over to him. Borrow it? He could keep it as far as she was concerned.

"Funny thing about magic," he explained walking over to the place Elsa had pointed out, "it can never be destroyed completely." She watched as he knelt down and examined the ground carefully. It looked like nothing but dirt to her but after all the reading she'd done while he was with Zelena she knew better than that. She knew that what he was saying was the truth and she knew what he was looking for. Magic. "It simply lives on in other forms," and he appeared to have found that other form as he carefully began scooping up the dirt on the ground with the dagger and letting it fall into a glass vial she hadn't noticed before. "Magic...survives," he breathed, flipping the dagger over and handing it back to her from where he knelt.

She didn't want to take it, she wanted to hide it away, put it somewhere safe that no one would know about, but here and now was not the time to have that particular discussion. She wanted out of here, she wanted to be gone as soon as possible so that she could put this whole terrible thing behind her and focus on Anna. She just wished she knew how to fix all this!

"As what? Dirt?" Emma asked sarcastically as she took the thing from him.

"It's much more than dirt, dearie," he commented waving his hand over the vial. Inside, the brown dirt sparkled into gold. Magic. "That urn, could neutralize any magic placed inside of it," he explained, "that's why Elsa remained trapped. And even though the urn itself appears destroyed, the dust from it contains the very same power, only a weakened form. Next time you want to destroy something like that," Rumple warned stepping forward, "be a bit more careful. One sprinkle of this and all your magic would temporarily vanish. Good thing I have it safe and sound. Ready Belle?" he questioned suddenly. It was sudden, a quick end to something so big, but it hadn't been quick enough. She gave a sigh of relief at those sudden words and nodded. All she wanted was to leave.

"Yes, quite," she whispered reaching over and taking his arm. Together they left the barn and she hoped that somehow the rest of this dreadful day could be salvaged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, here again we have one of those deleted scenes, in my opinion a deleted scene that should never have been deleted but...I digress. I'm not a producer. However, deleted or not it was released, is canon, and can be found here in Moments. I used this chapter to once again show a building up of stress. Obviously what happened in the last chapter hasn't particularly helped her stress level. She's dealing with a lot right now and it's all done on purpose to get us to that pivotal moment in 4x06. I hope we're all doing okay with this so far.
> 
> Thank you to Judymulder and Jewel415 for your awesome comments on the last chapter. Interesting thoughts, but not terribly surprising. It was a very unsettling season and it would be foolish of me to assume everyone is happy. It's fine. This is a safe place to discuss what happened. I won't belittle your thoughts so long as you don't belittle mine. Peace and Happy Reading!


	16. Trusting Knowledge

Guilt was a terrible thing. But strangely enough it was also a wonderful reminder of just how much she'd changed since she'd met him. Oh, she'd felt bad when she first thought that Anna had died, that she'd been responsible. But it had never felt quite like this. Like the truth was a lead rock with sharp little teeth clawing away at her insides all because she had to have that bloody stone! A life for magic, even magic that contained memories of her mother, there was no doubt in her mind now that there was no comparison for that. If someone was hanging off a cliff the natural response was to save them…not the magic. How could she have ever thought that doing otherwise was the right answer?

"At least we're alone this time," he mumbled to himself, snapping her away from her horrible thoughts and terrible memories. They were back, he was ushering them back into the shop, she didn't think they'd said two words to one another the entire way back from that barn and now they were alone again. Was that a good thing? It always had been in the past but now…

"Still not feeling well?" he questioned as he closed the door behind them and she realized she'd been more or less staring at nothing as she stood there in the middle of the shop.

"No," she answered. It wasn't a lie this time. She did feel horrible. And pale and tired and guilty and miserable. Anna wasn't dead. She should feel great about that and part of her did. But the fact that she was missing didn't ease her. And seeing the barn, the time portal, seeing the remnants of Zelena and what she'd made him do…how was he managing to look so put together? If it had been her and she had magic she'd have erased those terrible markings, caved in that horrible basement, gotten rid of every reminder! She supposed she could tell him to do it. She did have magic in the sense that he had it and with the dagger she could just…

NO!

No, she wasn't going to tolerate even a thought like that again. This thing, this horrible piece of metal weighing down her bag, what he'd made her do with it this morning to him…it was only making everything worse!

"Maybe you should lay down in the back for a bit, I can make you some tea, and-"

"I want you to hide the dagger!" she shouted spinning around and pulling the thing out of her bag. No! No, she couldn't touch it, she couldn't have it in her hand because she didn't want to force him to do anything she just wanted-

"Belle?" he questioned, looking her over as she settled it back inside and dropped her bag to the floor. "Belle what's wrong? Are you alright?"

She nodded, doing her best to reassure him that she was fine because she could see the concern etched deep into his face as she struggled with getting her thoughts together. "I'm fine I just…I can't stand this!" she finally sighed. "Keeping this with me all the time, it's too much power and responsibility to keep with me all day, and what happened this morning-"

"What happened this morning happened at my own request," he blurt out.

She closed her eyes and blinked away the tears she felt swimming in her eyes. She knew that. She knew that she'd done it because he asked her too but that didn't make it right. People shouldn't just believe him or not believe him because of a dagger. She shouldn't have the ability to command him to say or do anything whether he wanted her to or not. That was simply not how she wanted this marriage to start out. Of course she also didn't want it to start with the reminder of the truth she was keeping from him either, but one step at a time. They'd started this fight with the dagger once before and he'd distracted her by talking about wedding plans. He couldn't do it again. She wouldn't let him.

"It doesn't matter!" she cried at him. "I don't want this with me all the time, I don't want this power, and I don't ever want to be anything like Zelena, not to anyone but especially not to you!"

"You don't…!" but he stopped his exclamation there at the sudden sound of voices. It was nothing, just a couple walking down the street outside the pawn shop but it was enough of a reminder that an argument inside an old building wasn't always as private as it could be. "Can we talk in the back?" he asked. "Please, instead of here where someone might be able to…" see or hear. She understood without him having to admit it. But for a moment she considered not doing it. Part of her wanted to solve this here and now, but for the most part her more sensible side won out and after a moment she let him lead her and her bag into the back room.

"You're not like Zelena," he insisted the moment the curtain was closed behind them. "You're nothing like Zelena, I don't know where you could ever get an idea like that."

"We both had the dagger, Rumple," she fought. Yes, she knew that was a far cry from all the atrocities that Zelena had committed with it but…she didn't even want to think of what the future might hold if she held onto it. She'd alright lied twice since it was in her possession the last thing she wanted was for a thought like what she'd had after they got back from the barn to be spoken and turned into an unintentional command or worse…an intentional one. "We both had power over you and I don't like it-"

"You don't!" he shouted suddenly. "You don't, you don't have power over me, because you…" he seemed to lose his words as she fought to wade through the statement he'd just made. She didn't have power over him? She was holding the bag that held his dagger in her hand wasn't she? That did mean that she had power over him? Or had she been wrong all this time?

"Belle, may I explain something to you, please?" he asked desperately, looking at her with frustrated fire in his eyes. She nodded. Did he really expect her to just say "no" to that? Maybe he did. She could have. She could have demanded it-

He stepped forward suddenly, moved his hands over her arms and applied enough pressure to get her to sit down on the cot. Beside her he reached into her bag and pulled the dreaded metal out for what she hoped was the final time before sitting down next to her. "This dagger isn't dangerous," he sighed holding it in his hands between the two of them. "When I first told you about it I told you that the power it held was destructive…in the wrong hands.

"But in the right hands…your hands…it's harmless because I trust you with it. Because I see the same thing in you that Regina did when she gave it to you and that is that you wouldn't abuse the power of it, I know you wouldn't do that. In your hands you don't have the power, it's like it doesn't exist, because I know you won't use it. And I know you won't do that because the power you have over me beyond this dagger, the power you possessed from the beginning before I ever gave this to you, is a power that is much  _much_ stronger than anything this dagger could ever wield."

She was nearly in tears by the time he'd finished. In fact she'd barely noticed that he'd set the dagger back in her hands and curled her fingers around it so that she was holding it again. He was right of course. He hadn't told her anything that she didn't already know. Frankly, days ago, when Zelena had control of the dagger she'd been preaching exactly what he was…but that was what concerned her. It felt like things were beginning to turn upside-down and right now, after all they'd finally achieved with their marriage…this just wasn't the right time for it.

"I understand that. I do, Rumple I just…I just don't like carrying it with me!" she insisted. "What if someone steals it? Or just takes my bag and finds it inside? I'm not magical I can't stop someone as easily as you can! I don't understand why we can't just hide it like we did before when we put it in the clock tower."

"Because I don't trust it anywhere else but your hands," he insisted, giving her hands a little shove closer to her. "It's beyond trust. I trust that you won't let anything happen to this dagger or to me so much that I know without a doubt it's safe with you. And I trust that you won't use it so much that I know that you won't…please Belle. Just…just keep it close to you for a little while longer. If it still bothers you a month from now, we'll do something about it."

A month. Holding it for a month felt too long. But then again so did the idea of lying to him about Anna-

No. No, going back and forth like this wasn't working for anyone and especially not for her! The dagger and Anna were two separate problems, they were talking about a possible solution to one of those problems now! That was the way to go. Take care of the dagger first, then figure out how to help Anna, or at least figure out where to begin with helping Anna.

The dagger first.

He wanted her to hold onto it for a month. Just one month and if she really couldn't handle it for that long then she'd get her wish and they'd hide it somewhere secure again like they had last time. A month felt too long. But for all he'd been through, for all she was putting him through now even if he wasn't aware of it, she could at least give him that much time.

"Alright," she agreed timidly, pulling it closer to her chest and accepting it once more. "Alright, one month and we'll see where we're at with it then, but Rumple…just…promise me…promise me you won't ever ask me to do what I did this morning again. Please," she begged gently. She was already forcing them to start their marriage with a terrible lie, the last thing she wanted was to add to it because he repeatedly asked her to act as his lie detector! This was important to her. He was important to her, more important than anything in the world. The dagger and its power had only served to rip them apart in the past she didn't want it to-

Before she could think another word, before she could remember that she was supposed to be feeling guilty, or thinking about Anna, or wishing for some miracle…he closed the distance between the two of them and sealed their deal with a kiss that she returned happily. "That," he breathed when he pulled away from her, "is how I know it's safest with you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More stress, more pressure building up...it's going to make for an interesting snap in 4x06. At least from where I stand. I don't know what ya'll think about it until you tell me. Review and let me know what you think.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	17. Reasonably Justified Darker Thoughts

Lies create isolation. She'd nearly forgotten that fact. She'd learned it once before with Neal in the Enchanted Forest. The more and more they'd lied to the others about what they were doing in that cabin the more and more she'd liked having the cabin to go back to. The more and more she'd liked having the cabin to go back to, the more comfortable she felt with her lies.

She'd laid down throughout the morning, trying to get the guilt ridden twisting of her stomach to stop but in the end it just wouldn't. Probably the reason for that was the fact that he stayed there in the back with her, faithful as ever moving quietly around the room while she rested, keeping busy doing something or other with the gold dust that he'd taken from barn. She pretended to be asleep long enough that she began to feel like every step he took and she didn't open her mouth was a horrible betrayal. So she got up, told him she wanted a bit of soup for lunch and told him to stay put with his dust while she went to make it. That was one thing the library was still good for. It was right across the street and it provided them with a home away from home that she could go to make a pot of soup if she needed to. It also provided her with a place to escape now that she felt her past was creeping up on her in a way that she never thought it would.

She felt like she was escaping from him. Her husband. Running away!

This was wrong. Going through the motions of making a can of soup, thinking about Anna, being grateful he was away from her, that she could think in peace. This was wrong! All of it!

Everything about what happened to Anna had been wrong from the very beginning. She shouldn't have gone after that stone, she should have just reached out and helped her friend up. She shouldn't have run off right back to her father's castle after it was all over, she should have told someone. She should have told her father! But instead she'd let war come before the one person that had actually helped her in her desperation. And she should put this ladle down, walk across the street, go into that shop and tell him…tell him…tell him what exactly?

That she wasn't who he thought she was? That she wasn't as perfect and good as he believed her to be? That she kept secrets and told lies just the same way that he did? That because of a mistake she's made years ago, because she hadn't said anything…Anna was nowhere to be found.

She let her ladle fall into the warming soup and turned her back on her task, crossed her arms over her chest, then quickly covered her face with her hands to catch a tear before it could even leave the corner of her eye. She didn't like this. Any of it. And above all…

She wished Neal was here. More than anything she wished she could talk to him about this, share this one little bit of her life with him. He'd always known that she wasn't perfect, he'd always been able to see her flaws and work with them to produce something good! He was the reason she'd gone back to her father, to apologize, to start that relationship over again. He'd never needed to actually use the word "hypocrite" but it had been there between them when they spoke of it. Neal saw her clearly. Possibly even clearer than Rumple ever had and right now…right now she needed that. She needed someone to see her as capable of anything heroics, secrets, lies…

She was being hypocritical again, she knew that. But she felt like she was being more cowardly than anything. The whole reason she didn't march over there to tell Rumple about Anna was because she didn't know if she could live with that look, the one he'd give her when he realized what she'd done, the questioning that she'd let him suffer through this morning, all because she hadn't opened her mouth and told the truth! And what about the others? What would they say when they found out what had happened? How she'd left Anna like that? She'd set out on a journey a long time ago to be a hero and instead of acting heroic she'd acted…selfish. She'd cared more about herself in that one moment, more about her memories contained in that ridiculous rock than a friend.

And yes she'd been sure to fix that quickly. She'd done a lot of great things since that terrible day had come to pass, learned to live with what she'd done but now…now it wasn't just her living with it or nameless faces she'd never know. Now it was Elsa, a woman dressed in blue with white blonde hair. And Emma, and Hook, and Rumple…and Anna.

If she wasn't dead where was she? The woman that had taken her body away, that had taken Anna away, who was she? Her aunt? She'd yelled something up to her from that cliff, something about family…it was family business. Yes, that was right, she'd told her to stay out of it because it was family business. So…where was her aunt now then? And what had become of Anna and what was she suffering through if she was alive!

At the smell of something burning she turned around and managed to take the pot off the stove before she went over to the sink, and slouched against it, unable to find the strength to pull bowls or spoons or anything out because she knew that meant she'd have to go back over to face him again and she didn't know what to do?! Was there anywhere that she could run, anywhere she could hide from her past? From these terrible thoughts like these? Was there any way to escape it? How did he handle it? All the lies? The terrible deeds?

He retreated.

She could remember the jealousy of those terrible nights all too well. The way he snuck away from her and went to his safe place, the place he had magic and could surround himself with what he knew, with what was comfortable. The basement. The shop. They'd fixed that situation long ago, the moment he'd given her keys to his world and allowed her access to his life…but how could she fix this? Where was her safe place? What made her comfortable…besides Rumpelstiltskin?

Books.

Those long nights when he'd been gone and every eye had turned to her to answer the most basic of questions the only thing she'd ever wanted was to have a book in her hand and a quiet place to read it! She'd had that once. When he was with Zelena she never had to worry about him working over her shoulder or asking what she was doing, but now that he was back and they worked together in the pawn shop she only had…

This place. Her apartment. The library.

Her library.

The one that she'd been meaning to open. The one that she'd been working so hard to open before…before Neverland what felt like eons ago! This place had always been her safe harbor, the place she'd retreated to even when things were bad between the two of them. So much so that here she was again! She'd done it without even intending to!

No, things weren't bad between the two of them now, how could he know they were bad now when she'd never been the one to start trouble before? But if she kept this up, if she let Anna remain missing, in the hands of the woman in white, her aunt…they might be bad very soon.

If she let Anna remain missing…

The answer was clear suddenly. Every resignation she had, every guilty feeling, every ounce of panic was almost silent as the plan suddenly unfurled before her eyes. She knew Emma. And Snow and David and even Hook though she wished she didn't some days. She knew that if they were determined then Anna would be found eventually and their memories returned but…but what if she helped? What if she returned to her library? For something more than soup! What if she used it to look into her past, into Arendelle and her missing friend? No one ever had to know what she was doing-

No. Her heart fell because she'd already made a terrible mistake. She didn't have any reason to be over here as often as she would need to be to look for Anna. It was only yesterday that she'd told him she didn't want to open it back up not for a good long time! But…

But she could always tell him that she'd changed her mind. She could say…she could say…she could get to what she'd tell him exactly later but she could do this couldn't she? She could get back here. She had to. She had to use it to help Anna, she owed her that much.

No. It wouldn't undo what had been done. And no, it wouldn't fix everything completely, someday when she found her they'd still have to tell everyone that she'd been the one to lose her in the first place, but bad news could be softened all too easily with good news. Who would care about what she'd done then if she walked in the door with Anna at her side now?

Rumple would.

He wouldn't care about Anna enough to see the good she'd done through the lies that she'd told, but…wasn't she entitled to a few lies herself? Yes, she hated the thought of lying to him but after all the lies that he'd told, all that he'd hidden from her before he'd finally come clean wasn't she allowed to have a secret all to herself? And it wasn't like she was keeping it from him with the intent never to say anything about it! It wasn't keeping him from everything forever just…just for a little while. He'd understand that wouldn't he?

Maybe. Maybe he'd see it that way maybe he wouldn't. But maybe the best way to handle it from here was to keep it as quiet as she possibly could until it was the right time to share everything that she knew. And Rumple…he'd get over it. He'd get over it because she had gotten over his lies so many times in their life. It wouldn't be easy, but they'd manage. They always managed in the end.

Didn't they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so here we add two new stressers into Belle's into Belle's life. It's not just the dagger and the fact that Anna and what she did to her has come up again, the fact that she's lying to Rumple is going to be huge for her. Up until this point she's always been truthful to him and always encouraged him to tell the truth to her, the fact that she is lying and justifying her lies using his lies...not exactly going to go over well with her. There is also a second huge, big thing that is problematic here. Neal. Moments Exchanged built a wonderful friendship between the two of them, he died in MR&U but with everything going on she didn't really have time to mourn or adjust to the idea of him being well and truly gone. That's going to be a huge thing for her. She really needs to have that time of mourning for herself, but she's not going want to because she's more worried about him than she is herself right now. But, let's not focus too much on that now. We'll get into it later, just know that it's going to be a thing.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	18. Exactly What She Needed

How to tell him? That was the question she asked herself all afternoon. When she'd returned he'd found something besides golden dust to occupy his time in the shop and that left her enough time to go into the back to grab the book she'd gone into the night of the blackout and at least appear engrossed in it all the while her brain spent time thinking about that one question. How was she supposed to explain the library? That seemed to be the only question capable of taking her mind off the guilt she felt about Anna. She'd taken a step in the right direction. Well, it wasn't so much a step as deciding to take this particular step, but it was something in the right direction. Now she just needed to figure it out, find a way to make it all work. She could tell him that she'd changed her mind and wanted to open the library after all but…she really didn't want to lie anymore than she already had, which meant that if she said she was going to open the library, she'd have to make steps to open the library. Besides, she couldn't just suddenly start spending all of her time there, that would be suspicious all on it's own and he'd know something was going on. And if she didn't actually open it up it would be easy enough for him to find out, the building was only across the street after all. So, the first step was to open the library…for real. But that came with challenges big and small. Cleaning, shelving, systems, opening day…

Well, she could skip some of that. Originally she'd wanted a grand celebration on opening day but in light of what had happened and what she needed to get done she supposed that wasn't really necessary. She could open it quietly. And if she opened it quietly that meant that she didn't have to have everything perfect right away, not if she was just going to leave people to discover it was open on their own. So that left shelving, which would take her a day or so to finish, and cleaning, which would also take her a day or so. She supposed she could skip it…

No. The caretaker in her simply couldn't allow anyone to set foot in that place if it wasn't spotless. But Anna…

Help. She'd need help. With someone to share the cleaning and the shelving she could open the place in a day or so and then she'd have no need to make up reasons to be there, if no one figured out it was open she could have her peace and quiet, she'd be able to research with little or no interruption. But she needed help to get it there. Someone who would help but wouldn't ask questions, that wouldn't make her feel entirely guilty, someone that she trusted-

And she knew exactly who that was.

So just before dinner, as he continued to tinker and play with the golden dirt in the back of his workshop, she picked up her coat, kissed him, and told him that she was going to get them something to take home. He was so engrossed in whatever he was working with he barely seemed to notice. Only reminded her that it would be dark soon, to which she promised she wouldn't be late.

Granny's was crowded that night, but when she walked in it was clear that she wasn't exactly walking in on dinner. Emma was there. There were people around her. Hook, David, but also Leroy, the other dwarves, Granny, Archie, even Marco! Emma was explaining something, talking once more about Elsa, so much so that no one seemed to even notice that she had come into the diner! For a second she had a flashback of dealing with nearly all of the same people when the heroes had been away in Neverland! But no matter how crowded and quiet it was it simply wasn't crowded and quiet enough. It took her all of two seconds before she found exactly who she was looking for…or rather for Ruby to find her.

"Hey!" she whispered moving around the crowd and throwing her arms around her. "I thought for sure you'd be gone longer than a couple of days!"

"No one leaves forever in this town," she commented hugging her back. She felt better already, lighter in some strange way being with Ruby. Ruby was help. She always had been, and she hoped that she always would be. "I uh…I had to give you your coat back," she smiled when she finally pulled it away from her friend and smiled.

Ruby only shook her head and handed it back to her. "It's yours! It should be yours!" she smiled. "Come on, they're almost done here but we can talk upstairs," she encouraged pulling on her hand. Talk. She'd nearly forgotten. Before she'd gotten married when she had come to see Ruby before for the coat the girl had confessed that she wanted to speak with her. Wedding plans had interrupted that, but maybe, now that her wedding was over and they were here together, they could discuss what she'd wanted to talk about. She looked out over the crowded diner. Was that what she wanted to talk about?

"What uh…what's going on?" she questioned looking at everyone talking to Emma.

"She's just clearing up a misconception about Elsa," Ruby muttered. "Come on, let's talk." She pulled her away quickly, but not before she'd caught a bit of the conversation.

"Sarah Fischer?" Leroy asked. "The ice cream lady."

"She's not who she says she is," Emma answered. "She's the one hurting Marian, Elsa is innocent. So you can all stop running around and trying to find her and keep an eye out for-"

Sarah Fischer. An ice cream place? Was there an ice cream place in Storybrooke? Yes. Yes there was and she shouldn't have needed Lacey to remind her of that…it was right next to Granny's diner. The woman who ran it, had she ever run into her? No…no not that she could remember, she'd never gone to get ice cream before because Granny had always handled her ice cream needs! Not that she'd ever had any but...this woman, she was the one responsible for…Marian? The only Marian she knew was Robin Hood's wife! What was going on?!

"So…" Ruby sighed when they finally arrived in her room. "Tell me everything! I want to hear all about it, but you know you can leave out the stuff about the wedding night because no one needs that image in their head…" she laughed taking a seat in the arm chair that Ruby had in her room. As much as she wanted to launch right into a discussion on the library and what was going on in town, she did as her friend asked. She sat with her and allowed herself to feel like a normal excited newlywed for a few brief wonderful minutes as she recounted for Ruby, as promised, the night she'd finally married her true love and even before.

She told her about her father, about how Neal had helped her, and how that conversation had gone. She told her about his sudden spur of the moment second proposal, his panicked insistence that they be married before something else stood in their way and finally she told her about the moment it had happened. Her father. The well. The candles. Archie. She didn't tell them about their vows, those were still too private for anyone but those that had been standing on that hill to hear. But every other detail, every moment up until she'd kissed him and sealed their lasting deal she happily revealed. Including…

"Wow!" Ruby smiled taking her hand and looking over her wedding ring. "It's a stunner, alright. But then again I'd expect nothing less for the New Mrs. Gold."

"Thank you," she muttered taking her hand back and finally letting her mind travel back to what was going on downstairs, in the diner. She'd done her duty. As promised her friend now knew about her life...what about Ruby's...

"So uh…the diner…what was all that about?" she asked quietly.

"Oh, Emma was just giving everyone a heads up on the Marian drama. Stopping the villagers from gathering their pitchforks and all that. Just another day in Storybrooke!" she smiled. She knew that to Ruby it all made sense, but for her…Marian drama? What one earth had she missed?

"The uh…the Marian drama?" she questioned awkwardly.

"Oh! That's right you were gone by then, I forgot," Ruby remembered suddenly. "Emma and Hook, when they came back from the past it turns out they brought someone with them…Marian, Robin Hood's wife." She felt her jaw slowly drop as she realized that she hadn't heard Emma wrong in the diner and she didn't need to know another Marian, she had the right one all along! Marian, Robin's wife, the one that he'd once told her had mysteriously vanished? That's what had happened to her? Emma had taken her and brought her back here! That was one way to go missing, but also to call drama to an already dramatic situation. Sarah Fischer. What did she have to do with Marian? Or Anna for that matter?

"So what does that have to do with everyone gathering their pitchforks, exactly?" she questioned, feeling like she really should start watching the news or reading the paper. Only a couple of days away, only one day of honeymooning, and she felt like she'd missed everything!

But Ruby seemed to understand it, she smiled at her questions and muttered a quick "maybe I better start from the beginning" before launching into a story that was so entwined she couldn't have figured it out for herself if she'd tried. Emma and Hook had brought Marian back, and understandably Regina was not happy about it. She hadn't done anything terrible, merely stormed out very hurt for obvious reasons the night she'd gotten married. She'd been seen around town here and there since then, she'd refused to return as acting mayor, was barely tolerating Emma, and according to Ruby pushing Henry away in a pretty big way, which she supposed explained Henry's arrival in the shop the morning they'd returned from their honeymoon and his request for new memories because of his mother. The issues there were delicate and uncomfortable but for the most part they were being handled.

However, this morning things had taken a turn for the worse. At the town meeting that Mary Margaret had held, her first opportunity to really take control of the town as mayor, Marian had collapsed. There was magic involved without doubt and whether she liked it or not Regina had been summoned to her side to see if she could figure out what was happening to the woman. The diagnosis wasn't good. Someone had placed a curse on the woman, casting her into a deep sleep as the curse slowly froze her over.

No one believed it was Regina, shockingly enough, instead they had turned immediately on the woman that had come into Storybrooke and created a giant snow monster out of fear. Elsa. She'd done that the day that they'd gone on their honeymoon, the day that they'd stayed away from town. They'd hunted the Snow Monster down, destroyed it, but that very night a wall of ice had shot up around the town line preventing anyone from leaving. Elsa had created that too. That was where Emma had been trapped as Hook and David worked so hard yesterday to free her and while Elsa had eventually given in and freed Emma, the town had turned on her when Marian was cursed. It made the most sense to them despite Emma's constant insistence that she was innocent.

"So it wasn't Elsa?"

"Nope," Ruby responded. "They found something out in the woods and Emma came right back here as fast as she could to clear her name and call off the witch hunt. Turns out there is someone else in town with powers like Elsa. Emma's calling her the Snow Queen and all we really know about her for sure is that she's been here in Storybrooke under the name Sarah Fischer. She ran the ice cream parlor Any Given Sundae. You know it?"

She nodded, grateful to finally be back at the place in the story she knew. "And Elsa, she's…related to her some how?"

"Well…" Ruby sighed, "I haven't actually met the woman personally but from what it sounds like she doesn't know her. Elsa seems to be missing a few essential memories that explain what she's doing here and where her sister is but in my experience if she was related to her she'd have to have some memory of her somewhere! If she was an aunt or a cousin or a sister…"

A sister. Anna. Maybe this woman wasn't their aunt. But if it could help her locate Anna any little bit of information would help.

Now she just had to get to that information.

"Ruby…I was uh…I was wondering if you were busy over the next couple of days?"

"Not very," she answered. "Ever since I took time off to help Ashley and Granny hired a couple of extra waitresses I'm kind of at a stalemate. I've been helping Anton out in the fields for a while now, trying to get magic beans but...it's not as though we've had much success and even if we did...he doesn't need me to help him grow, I'm mostly just...muscle."

There it was again. A sad, lonely look that she'd first seen on Ruby's face days ago when she'd said she wanted to talk with her. What was going on? "Ruby, before the wedding, when I came by for the coat...you wanted to talk about something. What's wrong? What's going on?"

Ruby stared at her for a moment with wide sad eyes and her mouth fell open, but no words came out. Then, suddenly, an uncomfortable forced smile broke over her face, she snorted and shook her head waving the question away. "It's nothing," she excused. "It's not important anymore not compared to everything going on."

She was lying. Ruby had never lied to her before...just like she'd never lied to Rumple or to Ruby. Her heart fell. She would have loved for Ruby to tell her what was going on, to force her to tell her what she was talking about...but after today she just didn't have the ability any more. She truly had become a hypocrite. "Well...are you sure? If something is wrong-"

"Nothing is wrong," she assured her. "Really, it's nothing important. And you...well...what do you need from me over the next few days? Do you have another adventure in mind?"

She smirked. "And adventure of sorts," she muttered. She hated lying to people, to Rumple to Ruby, but she supposed that she didn't actually have to lie to her. She was hoping to get the library open, she was just hoping that once she opened it there wouldn't be many people who would need the library besides her. Though she supposed that for what she needed the help for, Ruby didn't need to know all that. Besides, it wasn't as though she was keeping something from her as well.

"I'm hoping to get the library up and running in the next few days. Quietly, you know, I…I don't want to distract from what's going on in town, but if I want to get it cleaned and opened and ready in time I'm going to need some help to-"

"Are you offering me a job?"

A job? Yes. No. Could she even do that? She worked for the town, that was where her money came from. Was she allowed to hire people? "Maybe," she answered. "I…I don't really know how much help I'll need after it's open but for the next couple of days I could really use another set of hands there help to get it up and ready for others."

Ruby cocked her head to the side and eyed her strangely, suspiciously. "What's the rush?"

The rush… How was she supposed to explain that without actually explaining it?! How did Rumpelstiltskin always make selected truth telling seem so easy?! How did Ruby? "There is no rush I just…I just want…"

"This isn't really about opening the library is it?" Ruby questioned suddenly. She felt her expression fall. Really? Was she that bad at lying that Ruby could see through her that easily? Rumple would see through it all in a heartbeat.

"No," she breathed. Why bother making a lie worse? "No, it's uh…it's not." But she stopped there. There was no need to make the lie worse, so far she hadn't made it worse, but that didn't mean that she had to divulge everything. She'd told the truth about needing Ruby for help with the library. But if she told her why…she had no idea what Ruby would think about her after she learned the truth, before she'd had the opportunity to at least fix her mistake a little.

"Say no more," Ruby finally muttered. "I'll help you get the library open but…I know you well enough to know that if you're not telling me something there is a good reason for it so just…promise me it's nothing dangerous or life altering."

Dangerous? Maybe. Life altering? Definitely. But it wasn't the type of life altering that Ruby feared. This would be good. She would help someone and change their life for the better! So she offered Ruby a smirk and nodded in agreement to her terms. Help, no questions asked, no judgment…that was exactly what she needed! Maybe that was why Ruby wasn't telling her what was going on too. Maybe she just needed the same thing she was offering her. Considering that...this could work. She could fix this, she could find Anna, she could tell the truth! Then someday none of what happened before she found Anna would matter.

Now she just needed a way to explain herself to her husband.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Uh-oh! Treatian, you've made a mistake, a terrible horrible mistake! According to 5x09 Ruby should be gone now! I thought you kept this thing up to date?!" Whoa there reader! Take a deep breath. Don't worry, everything is alright and as for that scene in 5x09 showing Ruby leaving...I don't think that it showed you what you think it showed you. Yes, by 5x09 obviously Ruby is gone and in that scene in the diner obviously she is considering leaving...but it doesn't actually show her leaving that moment. Ruby...you have to consider her character. She's loving and a natural protector. That night she told Mary Margaret, under duress that she was thinking of leaving and Mary Margaret wished her well. From that I took it to mean that Granny didn't yet know she was thinking about this and I assume neither did Belle, and then all of this craziness happened and one other thing Ruby is would be loyal and sacrificial. I don't see her leaving without saying good-bye to Granny and Belle and I don't see her doing that the night of her wedding. Which means that she would have had to wait around till morning at least and then, with everything going on, I just don't think it's in her character to up and leave with everything going on. So...I'm going to give her a few more days, because I do think she's the kind of woman who would say "I want to go but my friends might be in trouble, I can't leave yet." A few days gives her time to grow more and more restless and for Mary Margaret to finally say "I know you want to go so go, we'll be fine without you". So...never fear...we will get to Ruby's departure in a few chapters, just not quite yet.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	19. Completely Expected Surprises

So it was done. She had a plan, she had help, she had a job to do. Now all she needed to do was tell her husband.

All she needed was to find the courage to explain to him that she wanted to open the library again. That was it! Well, she needed to find the courage to explain it to him, but also figure out a way to not look so guilty as she did it. She feared she'd have to do it right away, the second she returned to the shop but by the time she'd collected a dinner from the diner, tiptoed around the little group at the diner that Emma was still consoling and Hook outside who gave her an irritating smirk, and arrived at the shop the sun was going down. No sooner had she stepped in the door did he tell her that he needed to get home.

With the vial of dust in his hand he informed her that he needed to do something about it, it was too dangerous to be allowed to remain in this vial and the answers that he needed lay in the books he kept in the basement.

"What are you trying to do with it?" she asked curiously, plucking the vial from his hand.

"Store it safely until I can find a proper use for it," he answered as he watched her examine it. "Any tool that can stop a person from using magic like this needs to be stored in a very particular way. My vault was the perfect place for that urn in the Enchanted Forest but here…let's just say I might have to get a bit more creative."

Creative. It was just dust. That was all it looked like anyway, seemingly harmless, looking as though someone thought to spray paint it gold for some art project. But she knew he was right. She'd read about what could happen when magical items were destroyed and their properties attached themselves to whatever happened to be around them. And she knew about that vault, the warning he'd first given her when she'd arrived and saw the doorless archway, what he'd told her only days ago about the kind of magic he placed there. Unstable magic that even he couldn't fathom. The urn fit that description, perhaps, but there'd been another reason it had been there that saddened her too.

"You told Emma you had the urn because you were afraid someone would try to put you in it one day," she muttered handing him back the dust. "Who would do such a thing? Who would put anyone in there and then just…just forget about them like that?"

"Well…" he sighed, looking the vial over once more before returning it to his pocket. "You live long enough you learn people are capable of most anything. Who put Elsa in the urn is a complete mystery that I imagine only she can solve when she gets her memories back. But we both know I had no shortage of enemies that would have been willing to lock me away for the good of everyone around me. I for one was always a bit suspicious of this maid that I had living in the castle. Something about her smile always made me a little uneasy…"

She let out a small laugh at his joke, at the way his words could relieve her stress and thoughts almost too simply, then she reached forward and kissed him. He seemed all too happy to kiss her back for a moment, to let them honeymoon by letting his fingers tangle in the hair gathered at her neck before she tapped her forehead to his own and smiled again.

"I love you," he whispered.

"And I love you too," she echoed.

So if she loved him, why was it so difficult to tell him the truth? Why was she so relieved that she had an excuse not to tell him. She knew who he was who he'd been. She knew that she'd loved him even through all that because she saw the man underneath the beast. He'd love her if she told him what had happened, all those years ago. He'd see the woman behind the beauty. Wouldn't he?

"Let's go home," he insisted after that and for the most part they'd spent the rest of the day apart. And, she supposed, if it had been a week ago, or even a day ago that would have bothered her. But now, with the secret she carried inside of her, she wasn't sure that was such a terrible thing. Living with the lie was easier when she was alone. He'd gone down to the basement to do his research the moment they got home and hadn't come up since. And she hated the fact that with every passing hour she was glad he didn't come back to her. She hated how she tiptoed around the house so that she wouldn't make any noise that would make him think she wanted to see him, she hated how she'd been almost relieved to have dinner by herself, and most of all she hated the fact that once upon a time going to bed alone while he was in the same house had upset her beyond belief and now she only felt grateful for the small gift.

But the next morning she felt…wrong. For another reason. She didn't wake up the way that she normally would have, with his fingers on her back and her cheek pressed to his chest. Instead she woke up suddenly, with a small jerk and deep inhale because something wasn't right. He wasn't on his side of the bed, he was sitting next to her. In fact he had only just sat down next to her it appeared, and what woke her was the depression he made in the bed beside her, pressing against her hip.

"I'm sorry, I thought you'd be awake by now," he whispered as she rolled over onto her back to face him. He thought she'd be up by now? How late was it?

"What time is it?" she asked.

He only broke into a wide smile. "Late enough for you to be up by now." Late then. Still…the only reason she'd sleep late was because she'd had trouble getting to sleep and he hadn't been there to wake her up. She knew she'd gone to bed alone but she expected she'd at least find him by her side that morning!

"Were you up all night with that dirt?" she asked confused.

"Yes," he nodded. "Yes, I was."

How much research did he need to do on how to keep it safe?! And better yet why was he wearing a different shirt and tie? Had she really not even heard him come in to use the shower or get changed? "What are you wearing?"

"Oh, I uh…I went over to the shop at some point and things got a bit dusty. This was just what I had laying around." Her heart jumped into her throat. Things got messy? He was never messy or disorganized! And he'd already been to the shop?! And just so happened to have a perfectly matching shirt and tie with him? What on earth…

"I'm fine," he whispered suddenly, reaching out and laying a hand against her cheek. "Nothing happened last night but I do want to speak with you about it and considering the time…perhaps you wouldn't mind if we went into town and took a walk first." He needed to talk to her. Wanted to talk to her! How convenient. She had something that she had to tell him too. It was as if fate had made up her mind that now was the time for her. She just hoped that she could gather her courage and say it right in time for their walk. Nevertheless she nodded her head, agreeing to his proposal, and got ready for town.

When they finally arrived her stomach turned at the sight of her library and she secretly wondered if he'd forgotten, but then neither made a motion to go to the store. Instead she reached for his arm and they began that "walk" he'd suggested. She tried to focus on what she wanted to say as they moved arm in arm, what she needed to say! And she wasn't the only one it appeared. He was quiet too.

He had something in mind, something that he wanted to say but said nothing as he walked her through the town to the pier and better yet stopped to buy the pair of them a small paper cup of french fries. She hadn't even considered the fact that neither of them had eaten yet that day. Just like neither of them had very much sleep last night. She'd been up half the night thinking about how she was going to tell him about the library. And he…

"So?" she questioned as they leaned up against one of the empty rails, sharing their fries and looking out over the rocking water. "Why did you want to talk to me? Does it have anything to do with why you didn't come to bed last night?"

He sighed and offered her a small nod as he chewed. "As a matter of fact, it does."

So it was about the dust then. "Well…did you, did you figure out about the urns remnants? How to store them safely? Is there a problem with them?"

"Do you really think I'd bring you outside to discuss something like that if there was a problem?" he questioned with an eye brow raised. Right. It was silly she supposed. He'd always been a private man. If they were talking about an urn in his private collection that even she'd been kept from in the castle he wouldn't have risked bringing her out here to tell her about it. "No," he answered for her, "the dust from the urn is being safely re-purposed so that very few will ever be able to be effected by its powers again. What I wanted to discuss with you is a bit more…personal."

Personal? Him? Talk about personal things out in public like this? Even if it was in a place that no one seemed to be? She'd sooner believe he wanted to talk about the urn! "So…if it has nothing to do with yesterday, or the urn…"

"Well I never said that it had nothing to do with them at all! That urn and what happened yesterday…walking into our bedroom and seeing you asleep alone...it bothered me."

Riddles. She hated riddles. No, she had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and for a few seconds it made her feel absolutely ecstatic because she knew that this time he wasn't the only one holding something inside. The only difference was that with enough prodding she knew that she could get him to tell her.

"Tell me, Rumple," she urged. "What's all this about?"

"It's about yesterday," he insisted. "It's about dropping everything every time someone comes to me for help. It's about giving up precious time I have with you to be in a basement fixing someone else's problem. It's about what we talked about that first day back, when the power was out. And about what I said yesterday, to Hook about a new leaf…"

This wasn't riddles. This was just him getting ahead of himself. It made complete sense in his mind but sometimes she felt like he forgot that the world didn't live inside his mind and even as well as she knew him she couldn't always know exactly what he was thinking. She could only guess. The conversations he'd mentioned, they all focused around others taking time away from the two of them to do some magical research or other. So what was on his mind now? He didn't want to do that anymore? He didn't want to help others? He wanted to stop doing good things so they could have more time together? She wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing! And it certainly wasn't like him in the least! It certainly went against what she was about to do.

"You're saying you don't want to help the town anymore?" she questioned.

"Not exactly," he muttered. Then he crumbled the paper cup up in the palm of his hand, threw it away, and offered her his arm before she could take it as they began to retrace their steps, a leisurely stroll back to work for the rest of the day. "I don't think that it's about not helping if it's needed, I think it's about finding balance. I've been at the center of every major catastrophe and life changing plot for this town since before it existed. I've done nothing but work since I lost my son but now…Baelfire may be gone, but I still have you…and Henry of course.

"And I think that if I ever want to have time with you I need to create a bit of distance between myself and the lives of the people of this town. It's not 'not helping' it's just being less willing to jump right into the midst of trial and tribulation as I used to be. This time around I want to focus on being a husband, instead of being the Dark One."

She felt herself smile as she walked on. Surprisingly enough, that wasn't a half bad idea. Not in her mind. He wanted to focus on his own life, their life. And she couldn't condemn that. After all his centuries he deserved it. And she would be all too happy to join him…after she had figured out what happened to Anna. Anna was her mistake, her fault, and she couldn't just turn her back on her once more. She needed to help fix this. But first…

"You know, there's uh, there's something I wanted to talk to you about as well."

"I'm listening," he muttered next to her as they strolled on.

Somehow those words made her stomach twist. She didn't necessarily need him to listen she needed him to understand! He couldn't do that if she got cold feet now. "You know that I love working with you in the shop and I know a couple of days ago I told you that I didn't want to open the library yet but-"

"But you are a woman of books and not antiques," he finished for her. When she glanced over at him she found him beaming ear to ear. "I can't say that I'm surprised."

"Really?" she questioned. Sometimes she felt like he knew her better than she knew herself. Had he seen something like this coming when she'd announced it days ago? Even before she knew about Anna?

"We all have our strengths," he nodded. "Mine has always lay in magic and secrets. Yours have always guided you back to research and books. I couldn't expect you to stay away from something like that for months on end as you planned. It's your sanctuary. Just as the shop is mine."

She smiled walking beside him. He understood before she even explained. Amazing. "Well…I wouldn't be leaving the pawn shop forever. I'll still help-"

"I never doubted you wouldn't."

"And I'm not planning anything big," she went on. "No grand opening like before I really just want to get it started again and open it quietly in the next couple of days so people can come and go as they please-"

"A fairly good idea for a town that sees far too much excitement."

"-then I can come back and help you in the shop again."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from the woman I married."

She had to fight not to let her jaw fall open in absolute shock at his words. He was really okay with all of this. Ready to just let her go off that quickly and start the library back up. In some ways she was almost disappointed…or at least she would have been if opening the library wasn't an ulterior motive for something else entirely. If she didn't know any better, if he hadn't just declared to her that he wanted to stay far away from trouble, she'd think that he was eager to have the shop all to himself again.

"So…you're sure you don't mind?" she questioned as they continued to walk down the pier. Was this really working out just as she'd hoped with so little effort? That meant it was better than she'd hoped for!

"Belle," he chuckled in response. "I ran the shop for many years without you. I'm sure I can manage a few days on my own," he assured her glancing over and smiling in a way that took her breath away. "I know how important this library is to you," he went on, patting the hand she had wrapped around his elbow before covering it completely with his own and offering a tender squeeze. "You get it going again."

She smiled and felt tears come to her eyes. Yes, she was lying. But it would all be worth it one day. When Anna was safe and the library was opened and the pawn shop was fine on its own...it would be worth it. He loved her. He'd forgive her because she always forgave him and because he was a good man that understood her like no one else did. When this was all over he'd understand and love her just the same as he did now.

She felt herself shake her head and smile as she let out a sigh of relief. "How am I so lucky to have ended up with such a wonderful husband?" she teased glancing over at him.

He quickly brought them to a halt on the pier as something like amazement flashed over his face. "I'm the lucky one," he corrected quickly before a blush could even begin to form on his cheeks. He wasn't used to hearing those words about himself, so he'd forever make them about her, but she'd continue to proclaim it until the day she died. Rumpelstiltskin, the Dark One, he was a good man, and a wonderful husband.

But as he leaned forward and kissed her, she hoped that he'd always think he was lucky, no matter what came, no matter what they told and didn't tell each other. She hoped no matter what came to pass he would always look at her like that, the way he did when he finished kissing her and glanced back over her lips as if debating whether or not he should do it again.

"You go tend your books," he insisted quickly, his tone joking as he moved them onward.

Now she was free to have her second chance. And this time, she wouldn't fail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An interesting talk for both of them because though Belle believes she is lying to him by setting up her alibi, what she doesn't know is that he is lying to her by setting up his own alibi. I'm sure that he does want to spend more time with her, but with the Elsa business, he's keeping his distance because he knows what might happen if he doesn't. He's about to wade into the life of a double agent and if he's not careful and cautious then he knows that he will get caught. Smart man.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	20. One Thing at a Time

For now everything was working in her favor. He would spend time working in his shop, she would tend her books. They'd both gone back to their perspective jobs. But it was nice to know that some things had changed, that this new "leaf" he was determined to live by was going to be nice for something. So before he left her there at the library he left her with a completely new set of plans. They were going to leave their work early tonight. But instead of going back to the house to do research on golden dust or sulk over something she'd done in the past and figure out how to talk to him, they were going to make up for the time he'd taken away from them last night. A date night. He wanted to have a date night with her! He hadn't actually set aside time for a date since they'd had that hamburger before Cora struck. Unless of course she counted the time he'd taken Lacey out…and she did not.

She looked forward to it all day. When she called Ruby to tell her she could come over and help it was the first thing that they talked about as they went over what needed to be done. Ruby seemed excited for her, beamed at the prospect of it, and muttered something about being glad that romance didn't die the second two people said "I do". And just like that she had another reason for liking Ruby. She might have been the only one that she'd ever seen to actually treat her husband like her husband, and not like the Dark One. Ruby had meant it, when she'd told her that she wouldn't forget that he loved her first and foremost. And she appreciated it.

But she couldn't think about that now. If she wanted to have an enjoyable date night, if she wanted to be free of guilt she couldn't spend all day talking to Ruby or day dreaming about what was to come, she had to keep moving forward. One step at a time. For the most part, thanks to her hard work the last time, the library was already more or less ready to open. Henry and Mary Margaret had already been in to borrow books for goodness sake, all she really had left to do was clean, finish shelving and organizing, and put a sign out front stating the hours and that she was open! She already had the "closed" sign ready.

Aside from those three tasks everything else could wait until she found Anna.

So she spent the rest of the day working. Ruby took to doing the cleaning, something that she understood how to do since she didn't have a clue where to start on the "dewy decimal thing". So she scrubbed the floor, dusted the shelves, and found the cleaning solution for the windows. She was quiet for the most part, every now and then she got that sad distant look in her eyes that she'd had the last few days, and once she even caught her staring at something in the palm of her hand as if contemplating something. She asked her if everything was alright, if she wanted to talk...but Ruby only shook her head and forced the unknown object back into her pocket and said it was nothing, the cleaning solution was making her tear up.

Ruby didn't want to talk and she wasn't about to force her so in the silence she waited patiently for Ruby to come to her and went to work herself on "the dewy decimal thing". Checking books, moving them, shelving them, working in silence for the most part as she did mindless tasks. It let her mind wander, thinking over and over about what she needed to do where to begin!

As she turned on the computer and began sorting through stack after stack she came to the conclusion that she needed to start at the beginning. That terrible and wonderful moment in her life when she had befriended Anna and spent the day traveling with her. What did she know about the woman? Considering the time they'd spent walking together, not a whole lot.

She knew she was from Arendelle. She believed that she was important in Arendelle as someone they'd passed had happily bowed and helped them along the way as they traveled that day, but she didn't know how important. Royalty? Nobility?

She'd been engaged, to a man named Kristoff and he…well they'd never actually talked about what he did for a living. But he knew how to climb mountains. Icy ones by Anna's comments.

She knew she had a sister, that her sister was "special". Elsa. Now she knew her sister's name was Elsa. And "special"...she had magic, she knew that now as well. She had enough magic to trap Emma in ice and destroy a very powerful piece of magic without thought or even effort. Enough for Elsa to say that her magic had always been "complex" and she could create snow monsters but beyond that she knew very little more.

She knew that Anna had lost her mother, just as she had. She knew that she'd still been grieving. But while her mother was her reason for going to the rock trolls, Anna's reason was due to another family member. Her Aunt.

That was a place to begin.

She worked through it as she shelved, idly placing book after book where they belonged, thinking through step after step of what needed to be done. Nobility and Royalty in Arendelle. She knew her stock of magical books that had been carried over here by the curse was not the greatest, probably because Snow White hadn't exactly thought through specifics for it when she'd cast the curse as she'd understandably had other things on her mind, but still her little collection was enough and at least it was more than she'd had before they'd gone back to the Enchanted Forest. Surely she had something on Arendelle. She could begin with nobility and royalty. Do her best to find Anna or Elsa or any mention of someone with magical powers in the family. Maybe from there she could find her Aunt. Maybe then she could figure out how to catch a glimpse of the woman that Emma had seen, the woman called Sarah Fischer and see for herself if it was the woman that took her so long ago. Anna's aunt, Sarah Fischer, the woman in white…maybe then she'd figure out if they really were all the same person.

And if it was? The woman had magic, lots of it from the distant look she'd gotten of it. Surely that wasn't someone she wanted to cross on her own. Maybe then would be the time to tell…

Maybe then would be the time to figure out what she'd do or say. But that step was still a long way down the road she had to go along. There were other people that she could talk to surely. Anna had a fiancé. Where was he? If Anna was missing wouldn't he be out there searching for her now?

Elsa had just gotten here. She understood that, it explained why Elsa was looking for her now as opposed to when the curse originally broke like everyone else had looked for their loved ones, but it didn't explain where the rest of their "loved ones" were! Like her fiancé Kristoff! When the curse broke shouldn't he have gone off in search of her? Could he have found her? Maybe she was just panicking again. She still wasn't ready to rule out the possibility that Anna had been found and this was a misunderstanding! For all she knew Kristoff had found her when the curse broke and they'd gotten married in Elsa's absence! For all she knew Anna and Kristoff had been searching for Elsa since the curse broke as well!

She wondered if anyone had thought to check the board. To see if maybe anyone out there was looking for Elsa, or if anyone besides Elsa had been searching for Anna, or even…

Her aunt. That was who she kept coming back to time and time again.

"Family Business" that was what the woman had called up to her when she'd taken Anna with her. The others had clearly heard a heartbeat so they knew that she was alive and while there was a chance that Anna was safe and sound with Kristoff that the staff might not work as well because it was simple magic…one way or another she had a feeling that she'd have to come back to that woman again. That her taking her was the reason behind all of this.

Family.

It all connected back to that somehow. But fortunately for her if Anna had been nobility or royalty her library should have those records. Somewhere. She'd just have to find them…

Tomorrow. She could find them tomorrow. She'd worked hard today. The sun had already gone down and if she didn't hurry she was going to be late, as Ruby was only too happy to remind her as the day came to a close. She'd been a wonderful help to her so far. The library was nearly clean. The windows washed, the shelves dusted, nearly all the floors were mopped and she'd succeeded in shelving most of her books. She was right, Ruby had been the right person to turn to for help. At this rate she was looking to open the library maybe the day after tomorrow! But first, she had a date.

Ruby walked with her to Granny's and put an order in for her for food before she excused herself to take a "well deserved shower". She'd earned it. One hundred times over she'd earned it and she was thrilled that Ruby was still determined to come back and help her the next day. She owed her, one night when this was over, and the awful truth was a distant memory and she understood why she needed that library she was going to take Ruby out to dinner and thank her properly! Maybe then she'd tell her what was in her pocket and what was really bothering her. But for now all she could offer was a tight hug and words of gratitude. Tonight was for someone else.

And while Ruby and work had helped distract her the second Ruby left her and she settled into a booth to wait on their order she felt like she was betraying Anna all over again. She was missing, alive it was true, but where she was being held and by who she didn't know. And here she was about to go home and have a nice relaxing evening with her husband? Good food, good company.

Waiting for Granny to pack up a couple of burgers and fries for her she felt her stomach begin to do roll after roll and she wanted so desperately to ask him how he did it all those years. How he let himself live his life all the while looking for Neal but she already knew the answer. He hadn't lived his life. He'd forsaken everything he'd ever wanted for Neal. Up until she'd come back at least. Up until he finally had something to distract him and…suddenly she understood why he'd gotten up in the middle of the night to work on his magic, to work on finding Neal as he had.

She'd split his heart.

And of course, just like she'd claimed time and time again, she would have understood if he'd only told her why he was working so diligently. It hadn't been that he'd left her in the middle of the night that pulled them apart it was the fact that he hadn't told her why!

But this…this was different. He'd kept Neal a secret because he believed that he was protecting him in some way. She couldn't tell him what she was doing because she couldn't bear the thought of telling him what she'd done before she met him, not until the time was right! When the time was right he'd understand. When she'd fixed it. He'd said himself that he didn't want to be part of things like this anymore only this morning. Telling him now would only drag him into something he was trying so hard to avoid for good reason! Yes, it was better to keep him out of it until she had no choice but to drag him into it. He'd be angry and mad but he'd understand. And until that point…until that point she couldn't do what he'd done and split her heart. She couldn't worry about Anna when she was with him. When she was with him she just had to be-

Walking out of Granny's shop, somehow remarkably right on time, took her breath away because he was there just as he promised. Leaning against the running car, the corner of his mouth twitching up at the sight of her. She felt herself break into a smile as she trotted down the stairs and met him on the side walk. He took a step up to her, then pulled a fresh bouquet of bluish purple flowers out from behind his back and presented them to her with a happy smile.

"For me?" she beamed taking them from him and pressing her nose into the petals.

"Only if you'll have them."

"Always!" she smiled happily before letting him walk her around to the other side of the car, folding herself inside so he could shut the door for her.

When she was with him she just had to be with him…and sometimes it came of no surprise to her just how easy something like that was.

Was that a good thing?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I could not resist! Those flowers that he had in 4x04...come on now, what else could they possibly be for but his darling wife?! So, obviously this is another of the chapters I'm updating to accommodate Ruby's departure in 5x09. We're getting closer to that BTW. Just be prepared. Also, sorry for these past few chapters and the future ones. MT&U just didn't divide up well nearly at all. I'd say it'll be over soon, but to be completely honest it happens throughout the fiction. My apologies. I know it's awkward.
> 
> Thank you to Jewel415 for your comments on the last chapter! You are awesome and I'm so lucky to have someone like you reading! Peace and Happy Reading!


	21. A Brief Feeling of Normal

Date night had been a wonderful idea indeed, even if the food never actually made it to their stomachs. She hoped that this never ended, this wonderful need that they both seemed to have to be around each other, to forego the world and even simple things like food in order to spend a few extra hours in each other's arms. It was a craving. One that she felt was normal, at least among newlyweds and she liked the idea of being normal almost as much as she liked date nights.

But then the part that she knew wasn't normal came. It was the moment he woke her from sleep again by shoving her aside. As he sat there in his place she saw the sheen of sweat that covered him in the moonlight because he was worked up, not over her, but by some image in his mind that she wished she could expel.

Still she handled it the same way she had last time, slowly egging him back into bed, holding him there in her arms, and hushing him until the worst of it passed and they both fell into a light sleep and stayed that way until he pushed himself out of bed in the earliest hours of the morning and began fumbling around the room for clothes.

"What are you doing?" she questioned glancing at the clock, noting that he shouldn't have been up to go to town for another hour at least!

"Going to the shop," he answered simply, pulling his vest over his shirt.

"It's too early," she pointed out. "I'm not ready yet, just...come back to bed for another hour or so...we need the sleep."

"You don't have to go anywhere," he informed her, taking a seat by her side at the bed. "I'll leave you the car so you can leave when you're ready, I'll use magic to get there. I'll be just fine."

She stared at him, tried her best to muster a glare this early in the morning, but it just wasn't possible and as she watched him fidget, his sharp movements faster than normal, as she watched him fumble the knot in his tie, she realized that she'd actually have to say what was on her mind because he was in no state to realize it himself.

"You weren't 'just fine' a few hours ago," she reminded him gently.

He stopped his motions, stopped trying to tie that blasted thing and simply froze, avoiding her eyes as he stared into space without uttering a word. She knew that face, that distant expression. She'd seen it time after time in his castle when he'd thought she wasn't looking. He was haunted. But this time it wasn't just memories, it was dreams. No wonder he'd taken to wandering stranger's houses and staying up all night losing himself to work…it would be better than waking up screaming each night. And maybe letting him have an extra hour of privacy in the safety of his shop this morning wasn't the worst idea. So long as it didn't become a habit.

She sighed and moved forward a bit taking the ends of the tie and working it perfectly around his neck for him, silently giving her permission for him to go on without her this once. "Tinkering is one way to take your mind off of it Rumple, but talking to me is the way to get rid of it," she insisted fastening his vest over his shirt and tie perfectly. "I can help you, you just have to let me."

He nodded, grabbed her hands and held them tight in his own against his mouth for a second before sighing and giving them an actual kiss. "I'm going to take care of it, Belle," he muttered avoiding her eyes. "I'm going to fix it." She opened her mouth to argue with him, to tell him that they should both fix it that she could help, but before she could get the words out of her mouth he'd leaned forward and kissed her. "I'll see you tonight," he promised before quickly leaving the room.

She tried to sleep after that, tried her best to tell herself that she'd correct him later, that he could have this one day to be haunted but then they were going to talk about it together! But she just couldn't rest after he'd gone. It always had been hard to get to sleep without him and the time it would take to do it before she had to get up just wasn't worth it. Besides, his comments worried her. Every time he tried to "fix it" things seemed to go awry in their lives. Every time he tried to "fix it" something bad happened. But now…

She sprang out of bed, hating where her thoughts had led her, hating that she had to check in order to believe it. She practically ran down the stairs to find her bag, opened it up…and saw the dagger laying right where it was supposed to be.

She led out a sigh of relief and instantly felt guilty for feeling relieved. Things were different now. He'd given her the dagger to keep history from repeating itself. He'd given it to her so that he couldn't try to do any harm when he tried to "fix" things again. Maybe he was right, maybe it was a good thing she kept it with her-

No! No that was absurd! She couldn't believe that she was thinking things like this! They were supposed to be passed this distrust. She trusted him. She had no reason not to trust him…right?

Of course she trusted him. She had the dagger it was here in her hands and this was a ridiculous train of thought to have when she had other things to be worrying about, other things to be doing! She had her own demons to take care of this morning, her own secrets to bury. Anna. If she wasn't going to sleep, she may as well get herself together and get to work.

She called Ruby, told her she was ready to get to work and her friend dutifully told her that she'd be there after she'd gotten the lost boys off to school on Granny's orders. Which meant that she was alone until Ruby arrived. Anna. She could clean and stack and order when Ruby got there but maybe just maybe she could start doing a bit of research on Anna's family and see where it left her. She might not have much time but a little now might go a long way in the-

She stopped in her footsteps on her way to the back room that she had decided to keep the magic books in when she heard…something. It sounded like a groan. She supposed if she was normal she would have thought her mind was playing tricks on her and gone back to the little room anyway. But she wasn't normal and too many times she'd believed that something was nothing only to find she'd been wrong in the end. Besides she knew this library. She knew its sounds and a groan like that wasn't one of them. It sounded…human.

With her bag by her side, her hand automatically found the dagger as if it was a loaded handgun. Only the dagger was a lot more effective and dangerous. If there was someone in the library she'd use it. If Sarah Fischer or Anna's aunt or anyone came back to capture her…she'd summon him. That would work. He'd be by her side, she'd be safe…she'd have a lot of explaining to do but that was certainly better than…

A man.

She nearly jumped when she discovered the body, laying there on her floor, broken glass scattered around him.

He was just a man wasn't he? And he was actually asleep or passed out and not just pretending…wasn't he? No. No, it was too simple for that. In this town? Ordinary, normal break-ins didn't just happen!

Her grip tightened on the dagger as she took a timid step forward. He didn't move a muscle, though his back was rising and falling with breath so at least she knew he was alive. Slowly she reached a foot out and gave him a gentle nudge. Nothing. She sighed and tried again this time with a little more force and finally he rolled over onto his side with another groan, eyes still closed hand curled around…a book! One of hers maybe? And laid out for her at this angle suddenly she could see what his other hand had been reaching out for. A brick and a bottle of whiskey.

The broken window, the brick, the bottle. For once in her life something normal had happened. This wasn't a case of magical break in this was just a case of drunken vandalism. Nothing for the Dark One, but certainly something for someone else she knew. Quickly as possible she stowed the dagger and her bag away safely then went to the desk and grabbed the phone off of it. She hesitated for a moment looking the man over. He was nice looking, gentle looking in sleep she supposed but it was really the bottle of alcohol that made her pause. She was so close to being someone like this when she'd been Lacey. She'd done so many things as her alter ego all the while under the influence of…

A curse. She'd been cursed and while the alcohol she'd had in her system hadn't been pleasant or helped her situation her real problem had been that curse! No one was cursed now. No matter who this man was or why he'd broken in it didn't matter. She wanted him out of her library.

"Now's not a great time," she heard Emma spit into the phone on her end, a less than friendly greeting.

She ignored her. "Emma, I need you to come down to the library," she insisted.

"Can it wait I'm-"

"We have a situation," she interrupted quickly and with that ended the call and closed the antenna, giving her no room to argue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the think about the dagger and the Curse of Shattered Sight...the curse doesn't randomly put thoughts in your head, it only makes the thoughts that are there worse. So, if Belle's reflection tells her that she knows the dagger is fake, then somewhere in the back of her mind I had to lay the foundation that something wasn't right with the dagger. It didn't have to be a big thought or an overwhelming suspicion...it just had to be there. That's what jumping up out of bed to check on it meant. Clearly she knows in her mind that something isn't right, she just doesn't want to admit it.
> 
> Thank you to Jewel415 for reading and commenting! From what I hear so far it sounds like everything is right on track! Horray! Peace and Happy Reading!


	22. Eye Witness Testimony

"Now" was never a great time in Storybrooke, but whether it was a great time or not she needed this person taken care of now. And she really didn't want to have to call her husband to do it. Over reaction was practically Rumpelstiltskin's middle name and that was a situation she'd rather avoid altogether than handle later. It was best just to have the poor drunk man taken care of like a poor drunk man as calmly and logically as possible and explain the funny morning she'd had to Rumple later.

She waited there in the room watching him but keeping her distance. Eventually she sat down on the small couch closest to the door assuming that Emma would take a few minutes to get there and this way if the man woke up and turned out to be dangerous it wouldn't be too hard for her to run. If he woke up and wanted to leave…well she hadn't exactly considered that part yet. He didn't look very tall but still he was taller than her. Everyone was taller than her. And bigger. She didn't think she was strong enough-

The door to the library opened barely a minute after she'd made the call and Emma strode in looking around for her. She quickly grabbed her attention and when Emma came into the back room ready to ask what was wrong her demeanor changed when she saw the man on the floor from irritation to disbelief.

"You've got to be kidding me," she blanched. "This guy again?!"

"Wait you, you know him?!" she stated surprised.

"Yeah," she answered stepping up to him. "We keep running into each other. First at Robin Hood's camp then he led us to the Snow Queen before escaping again. He crashed my date with Hook last night but he got away again only this time it looks like his own demons caught up to him."

She watched as she examined the unconscious man and tried to take in the massive amount of information that she'd just offered. That was a lot of run-ins for such a short period of time. And he'd been the one to lead them to the Snow Queen? Sarah Fischer? That was suspect in a town where nothing was coincidence. And Emma seemed to agree as she pulled a set of cuffs out of the back pocket and slapped them on his wrists before she shook his shoulder violently, trying to get him to wake up. "Hey, Scarlett, wake up!"

She'd done it far more violently than she had and this time the man did rouse slightly, but not enough to be considered conscious. The man only gave another groan and rolled over onto his back mumbling something that sounded strangely like "two more minutes Anastasia". Emma concluded quickly enough that he was "out" and called David to help her get him out of here. For once in her life she got lucky for a second time. David had only just been down the street with Elsa at the police station. Only about two minutes after Emma hung up David came, looked at "Scarlet" there on the floor, and shook his head as he gave a disbelieving sigh.

"You tried to wake him?"

"Yep," Emma replied.

"Any luck?"

"Nope."

David offered another sigh, this time one perhaps of regret and irritation. "Well then…" he muttered before stepping up to the unconscious man and hoisting him up onto his shoulder with more strength than she knew David had in him. Rumple was strong, but that she always assumed came from magic. David must have been-

"Impressive!" Emma drawled, stepping forward and gathering his mess up off the floor. Not that there was much of it. A bottle. A brick. A book that Emma glanced over before obviously deciding she was taking it with her. The glass they left behind for her and Ruby to pick up.

"We'll take him back to the station, give him Leroy's cell to sleep it off and question him when he wakes up," David planned before heading for the door again.

"Watch out for the ice," Emma called as he left. But the comment only made him stop dead in his tracks.

"Ice?" he blanched. "What ice?"

"The...the ice right out there on the street! You..." Emma looked him over for a second, confused, before recognition fell over her face. "You didn't see it..." then she pushed herself around her father and out the door taking David and "Scarlett" with her. She followed. It wasn't as if there was anything else that she wanted to do! If there was ice it might have something to do with the Snow Queen which might have something to do with Anna! Books weren't the only source of information in the world!

Outside she watched as Emma looked up and down Main Street, examined the roads in front of her and opened her arms out before dropping them again in a frustrated gesture. She was confused. The roads looked fine to her, perfectly normal! What on earth was she talking about?! "The road!" she exclaimed as David dropped Scarlet into the back of his truck. "It was covered in ice this morning! My car slipped on it when I got here!"

"It slipped?! Emma are you alright?! Are you hurt?!" he demanded in a tone she'd heard her father use when she'd been a child and confessed some accident or other.

"Yeah, fine, I don't think it was meant to hurt me just get my attention. When I got out I saw…" but Emma's voice trailed off as she looked down the street, dazed over something.

"What?!" David pressed, returning to her side. "Emma, what did you see?"

"It was the Snow Queen," she breathed. "She was here, following me!"

"The Snow Queen, you're sure?"

"Well, it's not like there are a lot of people walking around in white dresses leaving a trail of ice behind!" she responded. "Not many that I know of any way."

She felt her body go numb at that proclamation. Yes! Sometimes eye witness accounts could say what books and research couldn't. A woman in a white dress. The Snow Queen. Anna's aunt.

They were one in the same.

"Did she say anything?" David asked.

"No," she breathed. "No, she didn't say anything. I asked why she was following me and she walked away! I followed her and her trail of ice but when I caught up to her she'd vanished…that's when you called me." She'd vanished. Yes, she had the ability to do that. To vanish and take people with her. It was where they actually vanished to that interested her. Anna. Could she be with her now? In her lair somewhere in Storybrooke? Did she have a lair in Storybrooke?

"Do you know where she would have gone?" she questioned Emma, trying to sound as innocent and supportive as she could. It all sounded desperate to her in the end. "Do you know where she could be hiding?"

"Haven't gotten that far yet," Emma responded. "We need to check on Elsa. Whoever this woman is claimed to know her, for all we know she's been following her around too!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, sorry, I warned you that everything kind of divided out strangely. But, I think it's an important chapter because it does finally make the connection between the woman in white that Belle saw that day to the Snow Queen and Anna today. Now she knows they are one person and she can't continue to deny that it might not be the same Anna. And obviously we have a bit more of an introduction to Will Scarlett here. Obviously he'll be important later on, in the next fiction. Yes, it's much to my displeasure and I totally understand if people don't want to read it because of him but...give it a chance is all I ask. The story might surprise you just as it did me!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	23. Obvious Missing Information

Sarah Fischer. That was the name given to the woman that Emma had taken to calling the Snow Queen. In Storybrooke she'd been a simple person. She'd owned the ice cream shop next to Granny's Diner, but hadn't exactly caused much trouble in Storybrooke since the night that Emma and Hook returned from the past. Maybe it was strategic. Maybe she'd seen Elsa being in town as the perfect opportunity to work her magic and have the town blame it on someone else, but "why now" mattered very little to her. Who she was, that was the true question. People in town knew who Sarah Fischer was in Storybrooke, who she'd been in the Enchanted Forest, in their realm…that was the missing link that she felt like only she possessed.

The Snow Queen was a title that Emma had given her, but it wasn't official, it wasn't as good as her name, and all she really had to work off of was the fact that she was "Anna's aunt". Anna and Elsa. Arendelle. That was the place to begin.

Since they returned to this place she'd kept all of the books she had from their world in a secure place, the very back of the library, in a separate room, under lock and key, partially because she didn't know they were there after the curse had returned them here, partially because after she had her memories back, she just hadn't thought about it. No, they weren't dangerous spell books. Well…some of them might have been, but most were just average books. Their only claim to this special room was that they were the remnants of their world, not this one, and that made them special. Too special to be kept where the others were in her opinion.

She unlocked the back door, found the light, and began to breeze through section after section, learning what she wished she'd had a week ago when Zelena was a problem and they'd all returned. This was like a library within a library, placed here by Snow and Regina for her use, she had to learn it's sections and how books were placed just like any good librarian would have.

Royalty and nobles. That was where she needed to be looking. Birth records for all the Kingdoms in their land! Hers, Mist Haven, Philip and Aurora's, and even Arendelle. Anna and Elsa...they were something. The way people treated Anna, the way that Elsa carried herself and spoke, it was obvious that she was important. She just had to find out how. No. There might not exactly be birth records here but she had histories for virtually every land. They wouldn't mention everybody but surely two women that possessed an affinity for water magic as they did wouldn't go unnoticed or unnoted. Now if only she could-

"Hey!"

"Ah!" she shrieked, dropping her stack of books to the ground as she jumped back and saw Ruby standing there in the door.

"Whoa, hey only me!" the woman cooed stepping into the space. She held her hand to her chest and felt her heart racing. It was only Ruby. She'd been expecting Ruby, she should have expected her more!

"Sorry I'm just…jumpy," she explained, reaching down to pick up her books. "We had a break in this morning."

"Yeah I heard!" She took a moment to glance at a clock on the wall. Twenty minutes. David and Emma had left barely twenty minutes ago and the whole town already knew that they'd had a break in and yet no one seemed to know who "The Snow Queen" had been in her other life…fascinating.

"So," Ruby offered her a hand and helped her back up onto her feet, "was there any reason a drunk guy was camping out in the fantasy section?" Belle shrugged as she hoisted her books up into her arms and led the way out into the library to set them on a table.

"He was unconscious," she explained idly finding the right key to lock her stash of books back up again. "I've never seen him before."

"Maybe Emma will get something out of him," Ruby dismissed quickly. "So, what's on the schedule for today boss?"

The schedule for today. Her eyes scanned over the books that she'd set down on the desk. She'd love for the schedule today to feature some research. But Ruby…

"Today we finish," she concluded. "I'd like to open it up tomorrow."

Ruby raised her eyebrows at the comment and looked her over suspiciously. "You uh, you still not going to tell me why you want to open the library up so fast?" she questioned. She would love to. She would absolutely without a doubt love to sit her friend down and tell her every horrible and gruesome detail…but would she still be comfortable being her friend when she confessed what had happened to the last one?

The realization of just how thin the ice she was skating on seemed to slam into her like a weight of one thousand bricks. If this went wrong she had to potential to lose so much! The respect of nearly everyone in town. Her reputation. Her friends. Her family. Rumple…

No. No he'd forgive her. There was precedence here, he'd forgive her for all the times that she'd forgiven him. She just hoped that until the day came that he did forgive her she could bear the looks and thoughts she knew were bound to cross his mind. Would he even trust her with the dagger after that was over?

"You know…" Ruby gave a sigh, pulled one of the chairs from the table out and took a seat in it. "I swore I wasn't going to bring this up, because I trust you, really I do, you are allowed to have secrets I just…I worry about you. Just because you can have secrets doesn't mean you should and the last time you and Neal kept a secret from everyone else…" She felt tears well up in her eyes as Ruby's voice trailed off and she knew exactly what she was talking about. The last time she'd kept a secret it cost Neal his life when he'd fallen prey to Zelena. But…

What choice did she have? Then or now there was no difference! Then they couldn't have confessed their plans because they would have put a stop to them, Rumple would still be dead, Neal would be miserable and she'd have a hole in her heart. Now she couldn't confess because…because she just couldn't. Maybe she wasn't nearly as brave as she thought she was. Maybe holding it in was just the cowardly thing to do. Like running away. Like going early to the shop to avoid telling someone about nightmares. She supposed she couldn't complain when he did that now.

"I'm just worried," Ruby finally admitted. "You aren't acting like yourself and I just want to be sure you are alright."

Alright? No. Far from it. But how could she say that to her friend. How could she let her find out what had happened to her last friend.

"I'm just…" she took the seat next to Ruby and pulled her precious books on Arendelle closer to her. "I'm just trying to help with The Snow Queen," she explained. It wasn't a lie. It wasn't precisely the truth, but it wasn't a lie. "I'm just trying to figure out who she is, where she came from-"

"And the reason you have to do it here instead of next door with your husband, the-sorcerer-who-knows-everything, is…"

Because she knew he'd realize that she wasn't being entirely honest and she didn't want to drag him into it…not yet anyway. "Rumple and I had a talk," she muttered, "he made it very clear that he'd much rather stay out of things like this as long as he can. I thought I could live with that but…" she honestly just couldn't live with herself if she knew Anna was out there, possibly still in danger and yet didn't lift a finger yet again to help her! "I just can't stay out of it as long as he wants to."

"So…you're trying to help them by opening the library quietly so no one will disturb you when you spend your time reading…" Ruby reached over picked up one of the books in her stack and looked it over, "' _Histories of Arendelle_ '?"

She nodded. At least this one she could answer…mostly. "Apparently the Snow Queen said something yesterday about knowing her in Arendelle. I figured maybe if I could find Elsa historically I might be able to find the Snow Queen as well. Elsa says that the woman claims to know her and one woman with power like hers is bound to be in here, two women having it at the same time…I know there's got to be something!"

"Maybe more than you think," Ruby muttered. She glanced over at her friend and saw her soft smile, something small that told her she knew more than she thought she did. What on earth… "You know there really is no harm in asking for help sometimes. You would have found your answers a lot sooner with it than without it."

"I don't understand."

Ruby sighed. "Elsa is staying with Mary Margaret and David until she figures out where her sister is. It's pretty common knowledge among those that really know her that Elsa isn't just from Arendelle, she's the Queen."

She felt her eyes widen, her face blanch at the news. Queen! She was the Queen?! "Then…then that would make her sister a princess."

Ruby paused for a moment, as if thinking about it before giving an impartial shrug. "Yeah, I suppose. Is that important?" Yes and no. No, it didn't really matter that Anna was a princess. It mattered to her because she honestly hadn't pegged her for royalty like that! She figured that maybe she was a cousin or a niece. Her kingdom seemed so familiar with having her out around them that even though the one that recognized her bowed she thought that it was surely just because she was a distant relative. But a princess! She wouldn't have guessed that. She was a princess and she'd never been allowed that kind of freedom.

But yes, she was a princess and it was a good thing. A very, very good thing! The Snow Queen was Anna's aunt, the aunt of a princess the aunt of a Queen! Surely she could find something about her that would hopefully lead them to whatever she was looking for, why she was in Storybrooke, and most important of all why she'd taken her niece. The Princess.

She was so happy she reached forward and hugged Ruby, tight as she possibly could for the gift that she'd given her. And she didn't even know it! Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing having her around. She'd be shocked when she found out what happened to Anna, the role she'd played in her disappearance. But maybe she'd understand. Maybe she'd see just how long ago it was. Maybe she'd see that she'd been a different person then. Maybe when she did learn of the girls fate she'd remember her sitting in this library, working as hard as she could to fix her error and save her as she should have decades ago.

Ruby was more of an asset than she'd planned. Believing that she wanted the information strictly to help the others she told her everything that she knew, which happened to be everything that Mary Margaret and David knew, filling in the gaps for her. She knew that Elsa had come from the urn, she knew she'd broken in to steal the necklace and put the wall up around town. She didn't know that the wall was still up, that Elsa had tried to take it down but wasn't able to and that was what led them to search for another person.

She knew that Elsa was related to her, but what she didn't know was that Elsa was completely ignorant of being related to her. She didn't recognize the woman even though she'd claimed in their "brief encounter" that she'd met her before. Supposedly she claimed that rock trolls had done that. It was probably true. There was a time that she'd read everything she could get her hands on about rock trolls because they were master manipulators when it came to memory. They could destroy it just as easily as they took it away.

But Elsa wasn't the only surprise that she got. Emma, it turned out, had a feeling, nothing more than that, that the Snow Queen knew her too. It was based on nothing but a name…but she believed there was a connection there. One she didn't understand and couldn't even begin to fathom. There weren't rock trolls in Storybrooke, at least none that she'd seen. How, exactly had Emma lost her memories? And memories of what? For Emma if she'd met someone in Storybrooke surely her parents would know about it.

But then there was a hint, one small fact that wasn't right when Ruby talked about Sarah Fischer. "I remember when that shop went in, what was it five…eight…maybe ten years ago. Granny was so worried about another place selling ice cream, but it turned out to be nothing to worry about. Ice cream or not Granny's is Granny's and-"

"Wait!" she realized it quickly, almost quickly enough for her to be impressed with herself. "You remember the store going in?"

"Yeah," she confirmed casually, not catching onto what she'd discovered.

"You remember the store going in during the curse?" she clarified. Finally Ruby stopped what she was doing and looked over at her, recognition blossomed on her face as she realized the meaning behind what she'd said.

"I have to call David," she breathed. "I have to have them check the town records figure out what she was doing before she opened the ice cream shop...and how she managed to escape the time loop the curse kept us in for that matter!"

"No, I think it's more than that," she corrected. If Emma remembered her…was it possible… "I think they need to make sure she's always been in Storybrooke...if Emma feels like she remembers her..."

"Then she's from the outside," she breathed. "We have to figure out how she got it!" And with that Ruby left the room as she pulled a cell phone out of her pocket. She sat down in one of the closest chairs. Was that even possible? NO! No of course not, she had to be wrong! If there was another way into Storybrooke, Rumple would have used it! He'd know about it wouldn't he? She picked up her head and glanced at the window, looking at the shop across the street. She'd barely glanced over there all day. It was right next to the lifeless ice cream shop if someone would know about when the shop went into business, if someone would know if there was another way into this world without a curse…she knew who would know.

Ruby came back into the room quickly enough, telling her that they were one step ahead of them. Emma had already had her suspicions about the woman and they'd begun going through census records to see if they could dig anything up on her. She was happy about that. It was good it was a place to start…but it wasn't all she could do. She needed to talk to him. The question was, how was she going to do it?

Certainly not with Ruby around. She took a final look around her haven in the setting sun. It was clean. It was organized. It wasn't perfect, but it would do. Tomorrow she could…she could open it!

She could open her library! Finally! She could study and learn and research!

But tonight…she needed to talk to Rumpelstiltskin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so, if I'm completely honest with ya'll, one of the biggest reasons I was keeping Ruby around was for this scene. I feel like it's essential to her figuring out who the Queen is and frankly I just felt that there was no one else that Belle could have this conversation with besides Ruby. So...now that the conversation has been had, now that we know she's been talking to Mary Margaret and David and days later is still not gone, it'll be time to say good-bye to Ruby soon. Not yet, but it is soon. Stay tuned.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	24. Happy Distractions

She plotted and paced for what felt like a lifetime once Ruby left, she dragged her feet collecting her things and making sure the entire place was locked up, all the while thinking about what she'd say and how she would ask in a way that didn't make him feel like she was dragging him into what he didn't want to be dragged into and also in a way that didn't unnecessarily expose the truth behind why she was asking. But nearly everything she came up with made her stomach twist because deep down she knew that whatever she could say wouldn't be entirely true.

One lie led to another and another and another…

She hated it. Maybe this was a sign. A sign that it was time. Good things had happened when she and Ruby had talked about it, maybe she should talk to him about it. Maybe she should just-

Talk to Henry?!

Mysteries seemed to abound today. Walking into his shop every thought of worry and panic that she had fled at the strange sight of Henry Mills standing in her shop sweeping the floors.

"Henry?" she questioned. "I uh…I didn't expect to see you here," she muttered. Henry certainly complicated things to say the least.

"Oh yeah," he said stopping what he was doing and glancing up at her with wide eyes. "I work here now." She stared at the boy confused and shocked. She'd been gone two days. Was he that desperate for help already?

"Belle?" she glanced over to the doorway to see Rumple standing there, a happy easy smile on his face at her appearance. "You've come just in time." Now she was beyond confused. If she didn't know for a fact that she never remembered her dreams she would think this was one. They didn't have an appointment. Why was Henry working in the shop?

"I uh, I-I don't understand."

"I have something for you if you'll join me," he quickly inserted. She looked from him to Henry, who had gone back to sweeping the floor, then back to Rumple again, an arm extended beckoning her to return with him. Alright. She'd go along with…whatever this was for the moment. She moved around the strange sight of Henry there and closer to her husband.

"What uh, what's going on?" she questioned as he led her into the back with a hand at the small of her back.

"I have paperwork for you."

"Paperwork?" From inside a drawer he pulled out a green folder and laid it out on the table. When he opened it there was a thin stack of papers inside that he quickly pulled out and named.

"A marriage certificate, some personal titles for you that I suspect you'll like, the deed to the house, the shop, the cabin, the library, and the car. They'll belong to you as well. They simply require a signature." She felt her mouth drop at the sight of it. The paper work he'd promised her. She'd nearly forgotten that they'd spoken of it last night during their "date" and he'd promised to look into it. Looking at all the papers before her she'd say that he'd more than "looked into it".

"Ah!" he pulled out another one, a small packed compared to the others and laid it out for her, "this one names you as my sole heir. It's not a will, I'd want Henry to have some trinkets, but as far as the town goes it makes what's mine yours." No. She shook her head at that one. The house, the car, the shop, even the library it was all fine, but this?!

"You're the Dark One," she insisted. "You're immortal, I don't need to be the heir of anything-"

"Immortal doesn't mean that one cannot die-"

"And you don't need to remind me about that because I remember how it felt well enough," she snapped at him. No. She didn't want this. It was too much. She'd wanted one thing from him and that was a name, all this?! She didn't want to be the heir of anything. She'd only just gotten him back she didn't want to consider living without him again.

"No, no, no," he muttered, quickly taking his words back. "Belle, it's…it's not about that, it's about…it's about Storybrooke, the people in Storybrooke," he attempted to reason with her. "They should know. I want them to know. These are things normal people do when they get married and I want there to be no doubt that we are married, no doubt that I trust you with all my life."

She didn't like it. Not one bit. But his heart was in the right place, he was doing it for the right reasons, reasons that might give them a bit of stability or better yet help to ease his mind at night knowing that his ordeal was over and he had her in every way possible. She didn't like it, but he wouldn't like a lot of what she was doing this week either. "Alright," she sighed. "Show me where to sign and I'll sign them."

"Oh, not yet you can't." She glanced over at him, still confused and tense, wondering what else he had for her. "You'll need to fill this one out first. It's for your name."

She felt a smile tug at the corner of her mouth. That was the one she wanted. He'd saved the best for last, probably knowing that by showing her that one she'd forget about the others. He was an expert on manipulation but at the moment she couldn't bring herself to care. "So this…this changes my name?" she questioned, taking the form from him and looking it over.

"Actually it's a little more than that. It gives you a name." Her eyes found his. She wished he'd stop speaking in riddles and just tell her what he was talking about. "I did a little digging," he went on at her glare, "looking for the paper work to change a name officially with the town, but I found that there is none for you. You aren't on the town records, considering where you were during the curse…"

"Regina made me truly invisible." No record. No name. No place to live, to work, to relax. They hadn't lied to her in that little room when she'd begged them to tell her who she was. They couldn't have answered. She'd been no one. Slipped through the cracks. Maybe she had something in common with the Snow Queen.

"And now we can fix it," he whispered beside her, grabbing her hands and turning her to face him. "These papers fix that. You won't be nameless or undocumented anymore. You'll be my wife. The librarian, a full-fledged tax paying citizen of Storybrooke…which has it's advantages and disadvantages, trust me, but the point is you get to decide what you want, who you want to be. If you want to be Belle Gold or French, or even just Belle. The choice is yours."

Anyone she wanted to be. They'd had this conversation a year ago, about names and who she was. The answer was just as obvious now as it was then. "Gold," she smiled, reaching out and wrapping her arms around his neck so she could move into his arms. "I choose to be Belle Gold now and for as long as we  _both_ live." He beamed at the pronouncement and leaned forward to kiss her before she lay her head against his shoulder in a happy hug.

He was quiet, but she knew that he was happy. She knew that what she'd said had just as much an effect on him as it had on her. And that was a good thing. A very, very good sign."We should go," he whispered against her after a minute. "You have homework."

She smirked, putting the thought of her lies behind her as she pulled away. "You only want to go home to watch me do homework?"

"I did assume there would be some amount of celebration included in that."

"Celebration? What exactly did you have in mind for that?"

"Grandpa?" Her heart nearly stopped as she spun around and saw Henry standing there in the doorway. Her cheeks were hot, they must have been red with the embarrassment. She'd completely forgotten that he was there. In the shop. Working. Watching them as they were propositioning one another. They always felt alone in this shop, the fact that it was their grandchild that was intruding…grandchild. That was going to take some getting used to. "I'm done sweeping, what do you want me to do next?" he asked, looking between the two of them as she pulled herself away and began picking the paperwork up off the table, wondering if he'd heard her and if it was possible to ever appear innocent before him again if he had.

"Henry you can go now. I'm closing the shop for the night," Rumple commented easily enough. Did that mean that Henry hadn't overheard them?

"Okay, perfect, so I'll just…I'll just come back this next weekend and...sweep some more, I guess," Henry stuttered.

"And?" Rumple prompted.

"And…and I won't touch anything and I won't go in the back room," he said, sounding suspiciously like he was parroting orders he'd been given.

"Excellent and one last thing Henry!" he called before the boy could leave. "No one representing this shop comes to work dressed like that. Next time it's a suit and tie or there will be no job at all."

Henry's face fell. "What?!" he blanched. "But…but I'm a kid! I'm going to be sweeping and stuff! I don't even know how to tie a tie!"

"Then I guess you'll have to learn between then and now. As long as you work here you represent this shop and this family, my family. So next time it'll be a suit and tie or you can find somewhere else to do work."

"What?! But…really?!" he exclaimed looking to her for help. The thought was ridiculous, even to her. But he was Henry's grandfather and this was his shop. He had the right to parent or grandparent any way he wanted no matter what Henry may or may not have heard. But she had the right to try and convince him to go a little easy on the boy...privately.

"I'm sorry Henry," she smiled sympathetically. "Rules are rules."

The boy let out a heavy sigh and she could see him fighting with every breath in his body not to roll his eyes as he looked unhappily around the shop. "Okay, fine," he finally conceded. "I'll…I'll see you this weekend," he said easily, suddenly getting control of his temper just like his father would have. He set his broom aside, turned to leave, and the pair of them simultaneously walked to the door to watch him leave.

"Was that really called for?" she questioned the moment the door shut behind him. "Absolutely," he muttered. "No employer in the world would accept anyone walking in to work dressed like that. I'm teaching him valuable life lessons." That was true but he wasn't just any employer and Henry wasn't just any employee!

"He's just a boy," she reminded him, "your grandson."

"All the more reason for him to look the part when he's in my shop."

For appearances, yes she understood that. But for a grandfather trying to connect with his grandson for the first time… "Haven't you ever heard that you'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar?" she pointed out.

"I have," he answered, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her a little closer. "I'm the vinegar and in times like these I've no doubt you've become the honey, Mrs. Gold."

She beamed. Saying it seemed to make him happy. Hearing it made her even happier. She wasn't just a nobody anymore. Not after tonight, after she filled this paperwork out. She was Belle Gold. She lived in the pink house with her husband the notorious Mr. Gold. She worked at the library. She owned a pawn shop and a car. She was the heir to a vast fortune she neither wanted nor needed anymore. She had a step-son and a step-grandson and more relatives now than she'd ever had in her entire life, which for a royal was saying something.

"Come on," he pressed after a moment. "Let's go home and you can tell me about the library."

Her happy fire seemed to sizzle as it extinguished inside her chest.

She was Belle Gold.

And she was lying to her husband.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The point behind this chapter is really very simple. It's ownership. It's not just the name, but it's something that will move over into the next fiction. Rumple loves Belle, he wants her to be part of his life in every way except magical, so it seems natural that he would give her half of the house, the town, the money, etc. In my mind I think he'd do it to relieve some of his own guilt. "I may not be telling Belle about the magic thing but I'm doing everything else for her that I can." And later, when he's gone, this will allow her to continue living in his home and using his car without guilt. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself there because it's not as "guilt free" as it sounds (just give it a chance...), but it will allow her certain luxuries when he's gone.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	25. A Less Than Grand Opening

She wished that she hadn't grown up sleeping in and could be more awake in the morning! Because this time, this morning, she only barely remembered him scooting out of bed earlier than her and saying he'd leave the car for her to get to town. She hadn't even put up a fight! Just mumbled something incomprehensible, rolled over, and gone back to sleep. That was why she was truly alone when she finally woke up. And the first thing she intended to do when she got to town was march over to the shop and tell him that this couldn't continue! It might not have been much but she liked getting ready for work and driving into town with him, almost as much as she liked driving home and having a peaceful night alone with him! Now that they were working in two separate places she felt like she needed that small amount of connection they had. Not to mention the fact that if he didn't wake her up she would have to invest in an alarm clock and having him wake her up was always more pleasant than the blare of an alarm...

But the second she got to the library she had to put her plans on hold. On the one hand, she supposed that after his pronouncement to stay away from trouble she should be happy to see that they weren't standing at his door. On the other hand, even if it was only Ruby and David, she didn't know if she really wanted them to migrate to waiting outside her door instead.

"Ruby, David…can I help you?"

"Yes..." David sighed nearly with relief.

"Yes, but we wanted to help you first," Ruby responded, quickly holding her hand out to silence David and whatever he was about to say. Suddenly she held up a gift bag with balloons and confetti and "congratulations" written along one side. Ruby dangled it in front of her, and she couldn't help herself, she was intrigued. So, without further discussion, she opened the library door, secretly hoping and fearing this had something to do with the Snow Queen and Anna. She could do with another update by now.

"What uh, what's going on?" she questioned as she shut the door tight behind the pair of them. "Is it something with the Snow Queen again? Sarah Fischer? Or did that man say why he broke into the library?"

"Ah, no actually," David stated offering a disappointed sigh. "In all honesty, I've talked to the guy, and I think it was all just one big drunken misunderstanding-"

"And Emma?" she questioned, recalling what she'd said in the shop only a few days ago about her "super power" and how she'd confessed yesterday to continuously running into "Scarlett". "What does she think?"

She and David stared at one another for a moment, but it was all she needed to see the regret in his eyes that she'd asked that question. Clearly, Emma didn't think it was a drunken mistake. "Emma thinks he's hiding something and doesn't want to let him go until she knows what it is," he answered finally. "But in all honesty, Emma's a bit distracted at the moment with the Snow Queen. She was on the same track that the two of you stumbled onto yesterday. We couldn't find the name Sarah Fischer in the town census, so we're looking back in the records, taxes, order forms, property titles, and deeds. We know she was here for sure when the curse broke so somewhere in all that mess we'll find her or at the very least figure out when she arrived in Storybrooke. Hopefully, that'll lead us to…something," he shrugged.

Something. Well, she knew better than anyone that something was better than nothing. But she honestly wasn't sure how far they would get looking into records and researching. That was her job…was that why they were here?

"So what are you here for then?" she asked politely, looking between the two of them. "If it's not for Scarlett or the Snow Queen or Emma then what do you need?"

There was silence. Suspicious silence. Ruby looked at the ground, and David looked at Ruby with her eyes wide before he finally gave her a little nudge. Something was wrong.

"Well," Ruby sighed holding the gift bag out for her finally, "first thing's first. I know today isn't the opening you always had in mind, but I figured you at least needed something for your less-than-grand-opening."

She smirked at the thought of that. "You uh...you shouldn't have!" she finally choked out. "A Less Than Grand Opening". Yes, that name somehow suited her purposes quite well. Maybe even better than a grand opening would have! So what had Ruby gifted her with on this momentous occasion? She bit her lip as she moved tissue paper away, reached inside the bag for something hard and slim, and pulled it out. She beamed at the sight! "Opening Hours" the small blue sign read. "Monday-Friday 9AM-10PM, Saturday 10AM-8PM, Sunday 11AM-6PM".

"Now it's official!" Ruby smiled at her. "It's easy to put right on the door when you are ready to flip the 'closed' sign to 'open'!"

It was a simple sign. Nothing more than days and times but it felt like gold to her! Though looking down at some of those times, she could think of one "Gold" that might not be too pleased with closing time…and another that wouldn't be thrilled with opening even if her husband did stay around in the morning to wake her up.

"Nine to ten?" she questioned glancing at Ruby.

"Only on week days and I figured it wouldn't be long until you can hire some help for the later hours," Ruby smiled. "But I let you sleep in on the weekends and have Saturday and Sunday night for all the dating a newlywed might need."

She didn't have words. Or at least not words big enough for what she was feeling. In the midst of disaster and chaos, through good times and bad times and whatever was going on with Ruby right now, whether for purposes she'd originally intended or not she'd finally managed to open her library! And for only a few moments she allowed herself to be swallowed up with pride for all she'd managed to do! Then reached forward and wrapped her arms securely around her best friend because she knew that if she hadn't helped she certainly wouldn't have gotten here in two days! "Thank you!" she whispered against her.

"Don't mention it," she whispered back giving her back a little rub before releasing her. She couldn't have imagined a better reason to run into them this morning! This sign, simple as it was, was much better than a call to warn of destruction or ask her for research! But then again, Ruby had said first thing's first. There was more. She'd nearly forgotten David's desperate sigh for help when she'd initially asked if they needed something.

"So what was it that you needed help with?" she asked, suddenly feeling much more in the spirit of giving than she had only a couple of minutes ago.

"Well…" Ruby muttered timidly before taking a small step forward. "I did you a favor, and now I need one from you."

"Alright…" she muttered looking between the two of them. "What is it?"

"You're not the only one that needs Date Night," David muttered behind Ruby.

"What he means is that David wants to take Mary Margaret out tonight…without Neal. Ashley is busy helping Aurora out, and trust me she needs all the help she can get, Emma's busy tracking down the Snow Queen, Henry is…well, a kid, and after this afternoon I won't be able to do it anymore so I was thinking…"

"Oh…" she murmured, realizing what she was getting at. She was thinking that she could be the one to watch Neal. That while David and Mary Margaret were out she could…babysit. Had she ever actually babysat before? No, not formally, but…but why would she? Her life consisted of no brothers and sisters, servants galore to handle that sort of thing if it ever was needed. She'd led the life of a maiden's to a single master, a prisoner, and the wife of the Dark One. The closest she'd ever gotten to children was when Rumple brought a baby back to the castle, and she'd spent a few very stressful hours trying to figure out how to take care of it. And of course, her nearly grown up grandson! Step-grandson? Goodness half the time she still didn't know what to do about Henry. She'd had very little interaction with him when things were normal, interaction that lived and died with stumbling into him in the shop the other day. To think she'd believed that Rumpelstiltskin had to decide what kind of Grandfather he'd be, she still needed to decide what kind of Grandmother she'd be! A scary concept when she stopped to-

"So…" Ruby's voice burst through her rambling thoughts. "What do you think? Can you do it?"

"Oh, ah..." She supposed it was just babysitting in its most basic form. There was no teenager. No child. Just a baby. Baby's didn't need words or games they just needed someone to sit with them as they slept, change their diaper, and maybe feed them. That was all that Gideon had required. And certainly, it would be easier this time around! After all, Mary Margaret and David were prepared for the child and had all the necessary equipment at their apartment. That would be much easier than last time. Not to mention that at least this time around she'd know the baby's name. "Yes," she finally choked out. "Yes, of course, I can help."

"Really?" David questioned stepping a little closer to her. "You're sure it's not too much trouble."

"Yeah," she breathed realizing how ridiculous it was to be this nervous over watching a baby for the night! They did nothing but eat and sleep. Or did he know something that she didn't know? "Yeah, it's not a problem, I mean it's just a baby, right?! They sleep most of the time, don't they?"

David nodded slowly at first as if he was reviewing the last few weeks he'd had to confirm this. Sometimes it was easy to forget, this was really his first time being a father as well. "A large majority of their time is supposed to be spent sleeping, yes," he finally answered.

There. Easy enough! Go over to Mary Margaret's for the night. Watch a baby sleep. She could take books with her and do a little research there if she needed to. It wasn't a problem. So...what had the look been for? And...why exactly couldn't Ruby do it anymore?

"Wait, why-why can't you babysit? What's happening this afternoon?" She knew from the silence that followed that somehow she had just stumbled upon what they had been dancing around the last few days. "Ruby...is-is something wrong? I know you aren't telling me something so please just...just tell me! Maybe I can help."

Ruby opened her mouth and took a breath, but before words came out she turned to look at David who startled at the look and glanced around the library. "Right I'll...I'll give you some privacy," he muttered before disappearing into the stacks of the library. When Ruby looked back at her she saw tears in her eyes and suddenly her heart began to race. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong, Ruby didn't cry! And David giving them privacy.

"Ruby?"

"The, um...the last few days, the last few weeks actually, I've been working out in the bean fields with Anton, trying to harvest magical beans..." She nodded. Ruby had told her this in passing, but she honestly hadn't thought much of it at the time. Now...had she made a mistake. "We haven't been very successful, but...it hasn't been a complete failure either." She watched as Ruby reached into her pocket and from within it pulled out...a bean. So that's what she'd been hiding from her. A magical bean! A bean that could take anyone to a different world! And Ruby...

"I've been thinking a lot lately," Ruby went on suddenly, "since we got back from the Enchanted Forest...Ashley has Sean, and they have a baby. Aurora has Philip and...little Philip. Mary Margaret and David and Neal and now you have Rumpelstiltskin and...it gets lonely.

"And I'm not blaming you!" Ruby inserted quickly when she opened her mouth to apologize. "I'm not blaming you at all because I can see how happy you are, how happy he makes you and it makes me happy, truly I'm so, so very happy for you! Now...now I want the chance to do the same. I want to find my own match, someone like me, someone...not human. And there's no one like that here in Storybrooke. Trust me I've looked," Ruby smirked as if trying to make a joke but she couldn't see the humor in it because finally, she could see what she had wanted to talk to her about, what she's wanted to tell her, what had her so depressed and distant over the last few days.

"You're leaving Storybrooke," she whispered in shock, feeling tears well up in her eyes. Ruby nodded and when she blinked she began to cry with her.

"I've been meaning to for a while now," she confirmed. "I told Granny nearly two weeks ago and Mary Margaret the night of the coronation and I meant to tell you then too but with the wedding and how happy you were...I figured I'd give it another day and then Elsa and the Snow Queen happened and I just couldn't...I couldn't leave everyone like that, but...I had another talk with Granny last night after you told me you were going to open and she-we decided that I can't stay forever or keep making excuses. It will never be the perfect time to go just the right time so...so we decided that everything was together and today is the day..."

She had never seen Ruby cry before now, and there was no doubt that she was crying, her shoulders shook, and her chin wobbled. The pair reached out for one another and held on tight as they both wept. Her friend was leaving. The best friend she had besides Rumple was going away. First Neal and now Ruby? She'd gained a husband, and she was happy about that but Ruby...

"You were the first friend I made here," she whispered against her as she cried. "You took me in and helped me in ways I can't ever pay you back for!"

"I know," she felt Ruby nod through a sob before she pulled away and wiped some tears from her cheeks and offered a sad, but still genuine smile. "But you don't need me anymore. You do just fine on your own. You're not the same girl that once wandered into the diner but...I feel like I haven't moved since the curse broke...and I'm ready. I'm ready to have an adventure of my own, to find more of my own kind, more people who need me.

"It's permanent. Once I'm gone it's almost certain I won't be able to get back and if you really don't want me to go I won't but-"

"No!" she cried shaking her head. No, she didn't want her to go but...but she wanted her to stay here at her request even less than that. Ruby was right. Permanent or not she could not just be the sidekick forever. She needed to have her own adventures, find her own path, decide her own fate and if she felt that she has to leave Storybrooke for good? If she had to go back to the Enchanted Forest and dig up her roots by herself? Then that was what she had to do.

"No, you should go," she sniffled. No matter how much she tried she just couldn't paint a smiled on her face at this declaration, even if she was happy for Ruby. Happy or not...the truth was simple. "I'm happy for you and I hope that you find...I hope that you find every happiness the world has to offer! But I won't deny it...I'm going to miss you so much," she admitted sadly, letting more tears cascade down her cheeks.

Ruby nodded and her false smile faltered one last time. "I'm going to miss you too," she cried before they fell into each others arms once more and treasured their last moments alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, obviously this chapter has been edited. Originally it ended much farther back and was fairly short, after 5x09 aired I had to get rid of Ruby and this was just how I chose to do it. It's been edited again for 6x09; I hope that everything looks alright and I captured the emotions of Ruby's departure just right. I know that Ruby seems a lot more upset here than she did when she told Mary Margaret but...in my mind it's because she now knows it's immanent. I mean...when I visit friends and family we talk about my departure all the time, but it's not until the morning of or I'm at the airport that we both break into tears. Besides...Belle and Ruby, I felt that they had something different than Mary Margaret and Ruby had. I felt like Snow and Ruby were always like sisters, equals, there for each other to the very end, but with Belle...I always thought that Ruby would feel a little more responsible for her than she would for Snow and so saying good-bye to her would be a bit more emotional. I don't know, you let me know what you think!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	26. Nothing Means Something

It wasn't even noon and already it had been an emotional day beyond what she knew she was capable of. Ruby was leaving. There was nothing she could do to stop her and nothing that she wanted to do to stop her. This was what was best for her, she'd earned that. They hugged for a long time before she finally accepted that they couldn't just stand there and stare at one another indefinitely, one of them had to be the one to end their time together. All of it.

"David!" she finally called out after a while. She wiped her eyes and her cheeks and straightened her clothing uselessly, there was no hiding the fact that she'd been crying. But at least she could offer Ruby some small bit of solace. If she wasn't going to be around anymore then she had to know that those she was leaving behind would be fine, so when David finally appeared around a shelf she asked him when he needed her at the apartment to babysit.

"Tonight," he answered. "Just before sunset. We won't be gone long, I have a feeling trying to drag Mary Margaret away will be a task but…she needs a break," he commented looking at Ruby.

She could imagine that. First a threat, then a witch, then a time portal, now a baby and a Snow Queen and to top it all off Ruby was going to leave. A break had been earned. Tonight the pair would have the pleasure of what she and her husband had only a couple of nights ago: Date Night. And if Ruby couldn't care for their son, then she would happily take on the task for her. "Then I'll see you tonight," she confirmed. "Just before sunset."

David nodded and looked to Ruby. He asked if she was ready to go. Was she? Was she ready to go and...to really go. She was still and silent for a moment as she looked her over, tears still shining in her eyes threatening every minute to spill over. But they didn't. After a moment Ruby took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, looked her over with something like pride and nodded. "I'm ready," she answered, though somehow she knew that it wasn't just her she was talking about. Ruby was ready, it was true, but those words meant that Ruby believed she was ready to live this life too, that Mary Margaret and David were equally prepared, that Granny would be fine...it was time. They managed one final, remarkably dry-eyed hug before Ruby found her hand and squeezed. "Take care of yourself?" she questioned.

She nodded, fighting back tears. "Yeah," she managed through the lump in her throat. "You too?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah..."

And just like that she was gone. She waited until she heard David's truck pull away before she locked the library and practically ran across the street to the shop. He was in the back and when he saw the look on her face he naturally assumed that something was wrong, he just didn't understand what. But they sat on the cot through the morning as she told him what had happened, what Ruby had said. She cried on his shoulder until she didn't think she had any tears, until a simple text message from Ruby arrived on her phone. "Good-bye" was all it said. She sniffed as she typed "good-bye" back and cried again when no response came.

He didn't think babysitting was a good idea. He didn't even want her to go back to the library today! In the state she was in he wanted her to go back to the house and rest! But she couldn't and the truth was it was only half because of Ruby. She couldn't sit at home and let her mind wander. First Neal, now Ruby...she wasn't about to sit back and loose Anna too. So, with a heavy heart and dry eyes she kissed her husband good-bye, promised that she'd be alright and would see him tonight, after she was done with Neal, and left for the library.

Nothing! She'd found absolutely nothing since she'd returned and started her research. Despite her sadness she'd flipped her sign over for the first time to say "open", she'd hung the new hours sign out on her door, finished the paperwork Rumple had given her yesterday as she collected her emotions, then sat down to work only to find…nothing.

But this was the good nothing. The kind of nothing that meant something.

Magic.

It had to be. That was her only explanation for…literally nothing! It was fascinating. She figured it would be difficult to find Elsa and Anna. She was the current Queen, her books for the most part were older but there were a couple that mentioned her rule, mostly because of an icy disaster that had taken place the night of her coronation, but that was years ago and seeing as how the entire town wasn't frozen and she felt as though she didn't need her coat to walk outside she figured that the disaster was irrelevant and she could move on…or back as it were.

But that was when she stumbled upon nothing by it's very definition. An entire chapter in the book was nearly gone, nothing put blank pages! The generation before Elsa and Anna, their mothers rule in the castle just wiped clean! All that was left was a paragraph at the beginning with a cut off sentence saying: _"…Queen Sonja gave birth to a girl a daughter named"_.

And that was it. No period, no name, no nothing for three pages until the book picked up again a few pages later with the birth of Anna and Elsa, as if someone had come through and just pulled pages out of the book! But that wasn't the case! She checked the binding, the book was intact. And yet...it was gone. All of it, not even a picture remained on those pages. Strange.

The only other book that she found Elsa and Anna in was…a mess to say the least. The chapter wasn't missing but portions of it, sentences and names, appeared redacted, the ink completely gone from the pages so that it only mentioned one woman. _"Queen Sonja gave birth to…a girl…they called their…child Gerda…. Gerda…grew in wisdom and strength and…the subject of many fine suitors that attempted to steal…hearts…"_. On and on it went like that until finally the history mentioned that Gerda had found love and been married quickly. Once her father and mother perished the new King and Queen happily took the throne and at the time the book stopped had just given birth to a daughter named Elsa. No mention of Anna. Nothing was recent. Everything important was missing. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing either!

Missing words, ink gone…she could fix that! This wasn't natural wear and tear, this was proof that magic was at play! And if magic took the words away then magic could restore them! She'd seen a spell, or a potion for something like that when she'd been researching a week ago for Zelena, becoming acquainted with his darker craft of magic. She never forgot a spell and she knew for this one she didn't have to be magical to enact it, she just needed a few magical ingredients and she could bring these words back. She just had to-

Do it tomorrow.

She was late! Very late! She'd barely stopped in her research this afternoon and she'd worked straight through the day! The distraction had been a good one. It had been hours since she thought of Ruby or Mary Margaret or Neal...and she never thought she'd be happier to have no visitors for her opening day but considering what she'd learned, or hadn't learned, she was thrilled to have had the time to get somewhere. Now she only needed to work the potion tomorrow and she could read what had been removed! She could fix this. She was just as capable as Ruby believed she was and she knew it! Now all she had to do was show everyone else...after she took care of Neal. Little Neal.

She sighed as she locked the library door and quickly took off down the street in the dying sun. It was going to take some getting used to, calling the baby Neal. But she'd manage. He'd want her to. To begin with he would have been honored that someone had thought to give his name to a child in his memory and besides that she knew that Neal would understand more than most that this wasn't "Neal". It was a new Neal. A new person. And she wanted to know him too. Frankly, at a time like this, any friend, young or old, would be welcome.

She knocked on their door just before sunset as David requested but she could already hear tense voices coming from inside. David and Mary Margaret. They weren't fighting. She knew very well what fighting sounded like and that wasn't it. But it was awfully close to it and certainly not the kind of tones that she expected to hear int he wake of Ruby's departure.

"I just don't understand why we need to do this?!" Mary Margaret shouted. "There's no reason to, not with everything going on, not after today, I'd just feel much better if-"

Suddenly the door she was at opened wide and Mary Margaret stood there, looking sad but not in the way that she expected, not like her best friend had just crossed realms never to be seen again. If she had to describe it, she'd say that she looked downright hysterical, as if someone had just told her the sky was going to fall any second now. Her look only fell as she looked at her standing there in her doorway. "Oh, no David you didn't?!" she nearly whined. "I…I didn't…" Suddenly the new mother broke out into a wide smile and looked her over. "I'm sorry for your trouble but I just didn't agree to this. It's been a long day and given the circumstances I just don't think now is the time for-"

"Now is the perfect time for this Mary Margaret," David argued appearing in the doorway, reaching through for her elbow and nearly dragging her inside. "If not now then when? Yes Ruby is gone and the Snow Queen remains but in case you haven't noticed villains in this town are like the hydra. We slay one head and three more pop up. We have to find time for each other in the midst of all that because we're never going to have a normal life. Right?!"

She nearly jumped as David suddenly looked at her. Her? Was she supposed to talk now? Was she supposed to agree with him and convince Mary Margaret to leave on a date night as Rumple had convinced her a couple of nights ago? "We, uh, we, we do seem to have an affinity for finding trouble wherever we go," she managed quickly. But all things considered that was about as far as she was willing to go with it. If it were her and Rumple she wouldn't want Mary Margaret to throw in her lot or take sides. No, for now she'd really rather just calm the new mother's nerves in other ways; ways that didn't involve placing herself in the midst of their argument.

"Um…where's the baby, um, Neal?" she finally choked out.

"Behind you," David answered quickly still staring daggers at Mary Margaret. "Just waking up from his nap. Emergency numbers are on the refrigerator."

"No! David, we are not done here," Mary Margaret snapped at him as she stepped around the pair of them to make sure the numbers were where he said they were.

"Yes, we are Mary Margaret."

"No, David, we have emergency numbers which implies than an emergency could happen! We are not leaving our child alone when an emergency can happen. We aren't! We just can't!"

"We can and we will! And we're not leaving him alone, Belle will be with him. She's not going to let anything happen to him, will you?"

The couple both turned to look at her again as she realized that she was supposed to answer that question. She took a deep breath, tried not to look nearly as afraid as she truly was, and nodded her head. "Absolutely, he'll be perfectly fine here with me."

"Right and if anything goes wrong, and nothing will she'll-"

"Use the emergency contact numbers, on the fridge," she interrupted quickly, suddenly getting the feeling that this wasn't something David was going to be able to solve on his own. If he wanted to go, it was her that needed to prove herself. "Anything happens I'll call you first, then David, then Emma, then Doctor Whale, and then emergency services," she repeated verbatim, suddenly happy that she was actually capable of memorizing things like that with only a glance. She had it right. She knew that she did, because at some point Mary Margaret had starting nodding and checking the numbers off on her hand. She hoped it was enough, but she could see plain as day on her face that it wasn't as comforting as it should have been.

"You know thanks for everything but I think we should really reconsider," the new mother breathed looking over at David for help she knew she wouldn't get.

"No!" she encouraged trying to smile and be as positive as possible. "No, it's gonna be fine!"

"I think she's got it down, Mary Margaret," David insisted, wrapping his arms around Mary Margaret. He was finally smiling again, though she could see the tension and stress behind it as his desperation to leave grew, while Mary Margaret on the other hand looked to be on the brink of a small panic attack. "I think we should get going."

"Diapers!" she cried suddenly. "I need to recheck Neal's diaper stash!" And before either of them could say anything, Mary Margaret was off to the crib. She didn't know whether to cry or laugh at all of this. On the one hand her fears seemed absurd, on the other hand she was a mother had had only just barely given birth and leaving her child couldn't be easy. Especially in Storybrooke, where those fears that she had were not nearly as absurd as they should be.

David seemed to have the same response that she did, an awkward laugh that told her they both knew this was crazy, but also necessary and his patience as well as his insistence...she admired it. "So, how's married life, Belle?" he asked her across the counter, trying to make small talk as little Neal cooed in the corner and they waited for Mary Margaret to wretch herself away from him. She felt her smile fall away as her mouth went dry. Married life? Her husband, the one that she shouldn't be lying to but was only a week into their married life? Well...it was better than talking about Ruby she supposed. Better than mentioning-

"Wait aren't we...aren't we family?" David asked suddenly, wonderfully and miraculously putting a different thought into her head altogether. Family. That was a question she could answer. Well...mostly.

"Oh, ah, well I am Henry's step-grandmother," that one she knew, even if it was a little much. "Baby Neal is Emma's brother so..." her head was already spinning, she was only just coming to terms with the formality of what she and Henry were, but what she was to Emma...especially when Emma and Neal were never...so that made baby Neal...other? One more for the "other" category. Fortunately she didn't seem to need to finish that thought for David to understand it and he offered her an awkward nod of the head and small laugh as he realized how complicated it all was. Next to that...married life, and what she was doing to theirs, it was nothing...yet. "Yeah," she finally conceded, "married life is wonderful."

"I'm glad," he muttered. "And who knows maybe...maybe Neal will have a playmate soon." She felt her eyes go wide as the saucer of her tea cup as she felt herself blush, unsure how she should or could respond to a comment like that. Had he just asked her, just assumed, what she thought he had?! She hadn't even-

"Oh!" There was a cry suddenly from across the room before she could really considered what David had just mentioned as Mary Margaret stood up "I think we're going to have to reschedule!" She quickly gathered Neal up in her arms and cradled him close to her chest. She was no expert, but it looked too close to truly be safe. "He is impossible to settle back down when he gets like this!" she informed her.

"I think we should give Belle a shot." And so there it was, another test that only she could take, another comfort only she could give to Mary Margaret. Yes, she could do this. Couldn't she? Yes. If Ruby had believed she could do this then yes she could.

She didn't know who was more nervous, her or Mary Margaret? She could see it in her eyes, though she was trying to give off an aura that this was useless because it wouldn't work, she could see the fear in her eyes that it would work. She hoped that she disguised her nerves a bit better than her, she'd been practicing ever since Elsa came into the store. With as much confidence as she could muster she stepped forward and carefully exchanged the child with Mary Margaret. "Hey!" she cooed as she settled him into her arms. He was smaller than baby Gideon had been, much easier to hold probably because he was a newborn, but she did remember something abuot keeping his head in a decent position. She'd been doing that hadn't she?

Now what? She had to prove to Mary Margaret that she could do his. He was making noises, little coos of his own and for a moment his smile disappeared as his face began to turn red his eyes searching the room. No. Not good. Very not good. The last thing Mary Margaret needed right now was for her to see her son burst into tears in her arms!

"Oh!" she sympathized as she glanced down at him with a smile trying to remember if she'd ever read anything about babies that would be helpful. He didn't look like he was ready to cry anymore so that was progress. But where was a person supposed to begin with a baby?! If it were a child this would probably be the point that she'd introduce herself and ask him what books he liked to read. But seeing as how he couldn't talk... "We are gonna have such a lovely evening together," she informed him. "I even brought some of my favorite books to read you," she whispered.

He was making noises again. Good noises, bad noises...she wasn't sure. So with a permissive glance at David she carried him back into the bedroom before he could burst into tears again in front of Mary Margaret...only to hear his Mother and Father burst into a quiet argument over the kitchen sink.

"Hey, hey, hey!" she breathed fiddling with him there on the bed. "Hello," she smiled, trying to think of more things to say. Suddenly the baby chose to sneeze and what came out of her mouth as she looked around for a tissue was "Oh bless you! Let's get you cleaned up!" She shocked herself, wiped his nose clean, reswaddled him. Was that it? When she'd taken care of Gideon a lifetime ago she'd had to read books. Now it was just...instinct? "Oh, big yawn!" she cooed without thinking as the small sleepy bundle continued to squirm in her arms. Where on earth had that come from? She'd never really considered herself maternal. She liked kids, at least she did with the little exposure she'd had to them, but she'd never been around babies much. This was surprisingly not difficult.

"Belle!" David's voice rang out from the kitchen. "Can you join us for a second, please?"

Her nerves tensed up at that command, and she tightened her grip on the baby. She wasn't about to get involved in this fight again, and she hoped the sight of their small child happy in her arms would remind them of that. Only the second she reappeared from the bedroom Mary Margaret came striding forward and removed him from her arms. For a moment she feared that she was about to be told to go.

"Mary Margaret and I are about to step out for a bit-"

"Just a bit," she interrupted. "A very, very short bit. Minutes really-"

"I don't know how long we'll be gone but-"

"He needs to eat!" Mary Margaret inserted again. "Every four or five hours depending on how fussy he gets. He ate about an hour ago but if he gets hungry there's breast milk in the fridge-"

"-Mary Margaret-"

"You have to make sure to heat it up first and he doesn't really like the bottle, we're still working on it, but try your hardest. The diapers are there!" she pointed out. "He works like clockwork and is probably good for another hour or so. He has a few toys. If you put him to bed make sure to use the blue blanket and not the red one! The red one will just make him too hot it's for when Elsa is here. Oh! If something should happen, anything at all-"

"-Mary Margaret-"

"Don't hesitate to call and we'll come right home. And if he starts bleeding or you know…falls into something, if someone puts a curse on him or an old woman comes to the door with an apple, anything mysterious or dangerous or evil-"

"I'll summon Rumpelstiltskin and call you right away!" she insisted cutting the new mother off. Surely the emergency numbers on the fridge were all that she needed but if it was an emergency like she knew that Mary Margaret really feared would happen, she knew the first call that she would be making was to her husband.

"Good answer!" Mary Margaret responded. "Sorry I'm just…it's the first time I'm going to-"

"I think she got that somewhere around the time you started talking about him spontaneously bleeding," David informed his wife almost too calmly with a smile.

"Well it could happen!" she snapped looking back at him. "Stranger things have happened."

"I thought we were only going to be gone a few minutes?"

"We are!" she insisted. "But anything is possible in a town like this." She held the baby in her arms protectively, jiggling him up and down, up and down against her chest, clutching him like she never wanted to let him go.

Which was why she stepped forward quickly, wrapped her arms around little Neal and took him away as gently as possible. "We'll be just fine, trust me," she assured her.

"Fine…yeah right…that's what we all say before all hell breaks loose," she muttered. Then without further ado, David placed an arm at Mary Margaret's back, led her to the door and shut it behind them.

About a minute later all hell broke loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so this chapter has now been edited within an inch of it's life! First to accommodate the extended scene from the DVD (which I was pleasantly surprised didn't need much editing!) and then to incorporate Ruby's departure, and now for Belle caring for a baby. I hope that it's turned out alright and still flows. And Mary Margaret...yeah, we all know that I'm not the best at writing her, especially if she is hysterical like this but I figured that if she was out of character then I could blame it on hormones and the trauma of leaving Neal. I've never been a mom so I hope that I got that part down somewhat. I felt like the deleted scene confirmed I got the character right but...moms, what do you think. First time she leaves the baby alone, did I do alright?
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	27. Newfound Possibilities

She couldn't ever remember being so happy to see her little pink house in all her life! An hour and half with baby Neal, that was all that she'd had him for and yet she'd felt every minute of it. He was not like the last baby she'd watched and being prepared with the right tools obviously hadn't given her the advantage that she'd hoped it would.

As soon as Neal's parents left the baby started crying, screaming like he could sense his mother was no longer anywhere near him. Nothing seemed to work for the longest time. No diaper change. He didn't want the bottle. He didn't want to sleep! And no amount of reading in a soothing voice could calm him.

And Mary Margaret hadn't helped. She and David had ended up calling maybe ten minutes after they'd left to tell her they had something to do but were going on a hike soon and wouldn't have cell service. There was a walkie talkie in the house that she should use if she needed them. "Please," David begged quietly, "don't need us." And though she'd thought about it several times, in the end she had managed without them. Nearly an hour of ear splitting screams later he finally began to nod off. And just as she'd set the sleeping child back in his crib, Mary Margaret had come home. Alone, but looking like a changed woman. She went straight for her baby all the while smiling and rambling on and on about how wonderful David was and how marvelous she suddenly felt. Confused as she was she didn't ask, just told her that it had been a long day she had to get home.

And it was all worth it the moment she walked in her front door and smelled something cooking in the kitchen. Chicken Parmesan. And it truly was delicious in every way. It was a shame she liked cooking so much, otherwise she could really get used to coming home and finding he'd made something for them.

"I figured you'd be hungry," she jumped at his voice and spun around to see he'd come into the kitchen with her. She sighed, put her plate and fork aside and moved into his arms.

"I love you," she groaned into his chest.

His arms came around her and his chuckle reverberated through his chest. "Your adventures in babysitting not what you thought?" he questioned intelligently. No. It wasn't bad. It wasn't particularly good, but it could have been worse. Possibly. But when she considered Ruby and Anna on top of everything...

"Babies are exhausting," she muttered instead, turning to retrieve her plate so she could eat.

"They certainly are deceptively harder that they look," he commented fixing himself his own and taking the place next to her at the table they used so infrequently she could barely say it was "his place".

"Looking at them you think they only want to sleep all day, and Gideon...he did want to sleep, but Neal just kept screaming! I thought he had to get tired eventually but he just wouldn't settle!" she mumbled shoveling heaps into her mouth. He was such a wonderful cook. A great husband.

"It seems babies sleep only when it's convenient for them, I'm afraid," he confirmed. "I take it little Neal is much more work than big Neal was."

"Big Neal could at least tell me what he needed and wanted. He had favorite meals and we had discussions and habits! I knew what to do when he was upset! Little Neal…" but she stopped dead, catching her mistake not soon enough suddenly feeling almost afraid to look up and see his reaction. It was unfair enough his son had died, to speak of their time together so abruptly and to remind him of how much time she'd gotten with him…it was cruel. "I'm…I'm sorry I shouldn't have-"

"Belle," he muttered reaching over and grabbing her hand. He held it tight in his grasp, struggling with words she knew…she'd done that! "I want to know what you know about him," he muttered finally. "I want to hear everything the two of you did together while I was…"

She felt a rock fall into the pit of her stomach. "Dead," she supplied.

"I was going to say 'away', but if you want to be blunt about it…"

She smiled at his remark. Beamed really. Wonderful cook. Great husband. Good father…even now. So she let him be. She told him about how she'd been when she first arrived in the Enchanted Forest. She told him about how Neal had helped her, how he'd made sure she lived even when she felt like a ghost, protected her from Zelena and got her out of the castle and away from the others by taking him back to his childhood home. She told him about how they worked together to come up with a plan, to steal objects for their trip, and about their nights together. No, she didn't tell him about the night by the fire. That was a moment meant for her and Neal alone that Rumple didn't need to know but she was all too happy to share how she'd made dinner and the pair of them talked over stews and soups.

He hung on every word and in the end, she figured that there was no reason he shouldn't. He loved his son. He loved her. She knew he would have liked to be there with both of them, a family of three instead of two and two. It would have been a beautiful picture.

They'd both eaten their fill by the time she finished talking and though he didn't look like he was going to cry she recognized that there was something on his mind. Something distant occupying his thoughts that wasn't Neal and wasn't her. "Rumple," she reached forward and placed her hand over his own. "What…what it is?"

He glanced over at her, then quickly let out a long sigh. "I want to ask you something," he muttered. "But I don't know what you'll think about it. And I don't want you to feel pressured…"

"Pressured?" she questioned. He'd never pressured her! Why would he suddenly be worried about something like that now? What on earth could he have to ask her that would make her feel pressured?! And in that serious tone?! "What exactly do you want to ask me about?" she questioned, suddenly wishing they were in the living room, somewhere much more comfortable than a kitchen table they rarely used.

"The future," he whispered uneasily, "our future…maybe…"

"Maybe?" she echoed. More riddles. "Rumple whatever this is…you can ask me you know you can!"

He was quiet for a moment, his thumb rubbing a small circle into her hand as he laced their fingers together and his own tightened. "Belle," he muttered sounding suddenly resolved, "I don't suppose…have _you_ ever thought about the possibility of...children?"

It was hard for him to catch her off guard, she had a tendency to expect the unexpected with him, but somehow he'd managed it. Her stomach dropped and he stole the breath from her lungs making her nearly choke on the food in her mouth as fear clawed it's way into her stomach. It was an automatic response, one left over from when she still lived in her father's castle and she used to cry herself to sleep fearing a wedding night that would have been much different than theirs; when she thought of a future that would have been much darker than this.

Children? He was asking her if she would ever consider having children! A baby of her own. Like Neal and Gideon? First David, she suspected, at the apartment had asked. Then she hadn't really had the time to think about it but now Rumple?! They'd never talked about it before. In fact they'd barely talked about marriage before and yet here they were! But children had never come up and she honestly hadn't expected it to; not this soon after Neal.

"Never mind," he muttered suddenly into the silence, breaking her out of her own thoughts. "It was a fleeting thought. Forget that I mentioned it."

"No!" she answered tightening her grip on his hand before he could stand up and leave the room. She had been so lost in thought she'd nearly forgotten that he was there, that she needed to say something or else he might misinterpret her silence…she hadn't even interpreted her thoughts yet! "No, it's not that! It's just…you…you just caught me off guard," she explained.

"Well," he prodded, easing at her pronouncement, "have you?"

If the moment wasn't so serious she would have made a comment as to how strange it was that he was the one trying to get information out of her, but all things considered she knew that it wasn't the time to get into all that. It was the time to think about what he was suggesting…or not suggesting. He hadn't actually asked if she wanted to have them, just if she'd ever thought about the possibility of them. Her heart was pounding but that was an easy question for her to answer. It wasn't much, but it was a place to start.

"You know I have," she admitted easily enough. "I've had to think about having children since I was one, but it wasn't something I had a choice about. It was something that was expected of me. It's the first thing that I learned a Queen did…gave birth to future kings."

"But you don't have to live that life anymore. You can be my Queen and no one else's," he argued possessively. "Is it something that you would consider now? With me?"

Well it certainly wasn't something she'd ever consider with anyone but him! But she honestly didn't know what to say, mostly because she didn't know how he felt about it! Was he asking because he wanted to have another child or because he feared she wanted a child? Would her words relieve him? Would they break his heart? "I, uh…" she took a swallow and tightened her grip on his hand trying to figure out where to begin. "I haven't thought about it since I left my father's castle," she admitted. "Not since we met."

It was mostly honest. David had asked her only hours ago but the thought hadn't really penetrated because of Neal. And she could remember thinking about it more than once because he had put the thought in her head, when he'd told her about Cora and how he had suggested to that woman they have a baby. She'd thought about it then but only because, embarrassingly enough, she'd been jealous that he'd talked about something like that with someone besides her. It had shocked her, but she could clearly remember thinking that they hadn't been ready to have children then, much less talk about it! Were they now? Could they have a child together? Did he want that now that they were married? This soon after Neal had died? Did she?!

"What, um…" words, she needed words, not mindless stuttering. This was not a conversation to be unsure about. "What about you? Have you thought about it? Before now? After Neal…"

"No, not recently, not since Neverland before Bae…" his voice trailed off telling her all she needed to know. It was too soon after Neal had died, that much was clear. But she was curious. What did he think now?

"And what do you think? When you think about it, what do you think?"

"I honestly don't know," he muttered with a smile looking almost as caught off guard as she felt. He was a man of "yes" or "no", "black and white". Being stuck in limbo, in a perpetual state of grey, not knowing and not being able to make up his mind...that was bothering him she could feel it.

"You wanted another child at least once before," she pointed out, trying to ignore the sour taste the words left on her tongue bringing _that_ into their conversation… _this_ conversation. "With Cora-"

"I did," he confirmed, "but it would have been a mistake. Cora...Cora would have been a terrible mistake." That admission should have made her feel better, it should have been enough to make that feeling of jealousy vanish, but she was too concerned with what he thought about this conversation and the baby the pair of them would make to let herself feel relieved. All that had happened in these last few days and nothing had made her feel quite this tense!

"What about now?" she asked, digging deeper. They both really should have scheduled a conversation like this so they would have known what to say and come prepared.

"You and I wouldn't be a mistake!" he insisted quickly.

"That wasn't what I meant," but misunderstood or not she found herself smiling anyway. It was possibly the best compliment he'd ever given her. Now that he knew what happened he knew being tied to Cora permanently wouldn't have been a good idea, but being tied to her was something that was good! She was happy for the revelation but she still wasn't sure where to go with it. "Do you want a child now," she clarified after a moment, "or ever again for that matter?"

"Would you ever consider it?" he only asked again. And so on they went, back and forth both afraid to say yes or no for fear that they would upset the other or crush their dreams. But this wasn't something that could be left for debate. Little as she knew on the subject she understood that babies weren't something that required a "maybe". It was a topic that needed a clear "yes" or "no". Someone had to give that answer eventually and she knew him well enough to know it wasn't going to be him. So what did she think? Would she ever consider children again?

At first her stomach turned at the idea; pictures she hadn't seen in years suddenly flashed in front of her eyes: being prepared for Gaston's bed chamber, suited to make him happy, being dropped off like she was just a common letter, and of course practically running back to her room in tears when everything was over as he slept, wondering if his baby was growing inside of her.

Those things had never happened, and she was beyond grateful for that. There was a time when they were her greatest fear and she had panic attacks just thinking about it. To her there was nothing lower than being used only as an incubator for a future king's child. Even if it would have been half hers. The surface feelings returned just as quickly and automatically as if they'd never left. But they didn't stay as they would have in the passed.

It wasn't that way anymore. She was married to him now. Her true love. And he was here, holding her hand lovingly, caring for her, making her dinner because she was too tired and busy and far too emotional to think about something like food! She wasn't sleeping with him now and nor had she ever slept with him because she had to or because she felt obligated to. She slept with him because she liked it. She liked the intimacy that came from being plastered to his side at night. She liked the way he made her feel safe. She liked feeling like his wife, like he was her husband. The bed and the room might have been smaller than what she would have expected in her father's castle, or even his castle, but there was more love in his arms, in his bed, than anywhere else in the world. And the only crying that ever took place with him in bed were tears of joy, in the aftermath of their lovemaking as they both glowed. Yes, things were different in a very good way for her now. But would having a baby feel different?

What if it wasn't Gaston's baby that grew inside off her, what if it was his? What if it was theirs? What if she could wake up every morning and look in the mirror to see her swollen stomach, solid proof of the feelings they created within one another. What if, instead of being wrenched from her arms the second it was born to be raised by a nurse and educated to be a king, they both held him in their arms and stared down in utter astonishment at such a small being? What if he had her eyes and his hair? If he liked to read as she did or they had to check around corners when they had to have a discussion because he had inherited his quizzical nature?

What if they had a girl?!

She felt a smile tug at her lips as she realized the terrible feelings she'd first had when he'd suggested it, had faded away into excitement and curiosity, as she wondered if their actions over these last few days had given birth to something besides intimacy. She hadn't thought about it much, but she knew just from that reaction that she had her answer.

"Yes," she said her voice filled with just as much surprise as she felt.

"Yes?" he asked, looked just as surprised.

Yes, she would consider having a baby with him. But only after having a little more time to themselves. If today had taught her anything it was that babies weren't easy, and neither was their life. Pan. Neverland. Zelena. Curses. Snow Queens. Ruby. Anna…

There was so much that happened in the last year they didn't have the time required to raise a child. "Yes," she confirmed, smiling over at him and reaching out to run her hand over his cheek. "When the time is right I would want to have a baby with you…a child of our own."

He held her hand in place and kissed her palm before looking back at her with something like excitement in his eyes. And because he was excited, whether or not he knew it, she could tell that he really did want to have a child again. "Yes?" he asked again.

"Yes," she assured him, trying to hide the sadness in her eyes. They had a lot of work to do between now and then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't even begin to tell you how long I've been waiting to share this chapter with you. It seemed like a natural progression chapter. You get married you start talking about kids right?! So...this is just my safety net. If she gets pregnant (and from 5x11 I'd say it's a very real possibility) then Yay! I've planned ahead. If she ever says that she hates kids and never wants them then...I guess I'll be deleting this chapter. Oh well. What will happen? Only time will tell.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	28. Missing in Action

It was the sun that woke her that morning, streaming in through their bedroom window, playing against the backs of her eyelids. And for a moment it was nice, a beautiful way to wake up until she realized…she hadn't awoken to sun like that since the first curse had broken and he'd left her for town, there in the bed to wake up alone. Her eyes popped open and she lifted a hand to shield the blinding sun away only to look around the room, the spot next to her where he should be sleeping only to find him…

Gone.

Gone? Gone again?! No! No, he wouldn't just leave her here alone another morning, would he? She'd been tired last night when they'd gone to bed, she'd told him so herself but surly he didn't think that she was so tired he couldn't wake her up for work again? Did he? She pushed the blankets off of her and quickly raced out the door. "Rumple?" she called. But there was no sound in the house. Nothing but ticking clocks and the sound her voice made as it echoed off the walls. Empty. She knew what the house felt like empty and this was it! Still, she refused to believe it because leaving her there alone was just not something he did every day. Downstairs, a glance out the window told her that the car was still parked in the driveway, though that meant little to her because as he'd point out he could go places with magical assistance. And it wasn't like he took a briefcase to work every day that was missing and would tell her he left. If anything there would be a note! Unless he was…

The basement!

Quickly she spun around, removed her keys, unlocked the door, though she knew that was a bad sign that he wasn't there, let the knob cool at her touch and descended the stairs. Gone. Missing. Just like before…just like Anna was missing, like when he'd gone to Neverland, or when Zelena had him and she hadn't known it. Gone like…

No. That was silly. The most ridiculous thought she'd ever had in her life. She was jumping to conclusions again. He was fine. He'd misinterpreted her exhaustion last night for being too tired to get up and go into town early and so he'd left her there to join him in town when she got up. It was the most logical answer. She just…after all this time she just really didn't like waking up alone in this house and she thought he understood that. Clearly they needed to have a talk about their mornings because she wanted them to go into town together in the mornings, like always, like before-

A sound? Music?

It was dull at first, a light little melody that she thought was just playing in her head, proof that she was going crazy, but when she really stopped to listen she knew exactly what it was. Her cell phone was ringing. Rumple! Up she ran, into the hallway where she'd placed her bag yesterday, so she could start shifting through brushes and combs, wallet, dagger, mints, and-

Cell phone. Only it wasn't Rumple's name on the front begging her to answer.

"Emma?" she questioned into the thing. A call from Emma this early could never be a good thing.

"Yeah, hey. Listen…I need a favor." A favor was a lot better than someone being dead. And if it pertained to the Snow Queen or Anna…even better.

"Anything," she responded eagerly.

"We found something new on the Snow Queen," Emma muttered. "We're going to have a meeting at the jailhouse in an hour as soon as Regina can get here. We're gonna need all the help or...brainpower we can get on this one."

Regina. They needed Regina too? She hadn't seen her since…well not since the night of the naming ceremony and after all Ruby had told her about Robin Hood and Marian she knew it was for good reason! Was this bad enough that Regina had to be pulled away from her own emergency to help them?

"Sure, I'll um…I'll just get dressed and come by-"

"Actually you coming is only half the favor," Emma drawled awkwardly. Apparently her coming had also been the easy part of the favor as well. "We need Gold," Emma said quickly. "There's something I want to ask him about and after last time, you know with the…dagger and all…it might be better if-"

"I talked him into coming for you," she assumed.

"Yeah, something like that. I just don't get the feeling he'd come if I asked. Henry's grandfather or not I don't exactly think we're seeing eye to eye at the moment. He's ignoring my calls."

She sighed. Rumple wasn't going to be easy to convince but it wasn't because of Emma. No the questioning hadn't helped her cause but that had been her fault, though she supposed Rumple didn't know that. If she'd just said something, if she'd been honest and confessed she was the one that knew Anna, she could have spared them both! In the end she should be the one to ask because of that, but also because she knew that what Emma was sensing from Rumple wasn't because of the questioning, it was because of the new "leaf" he'd told her about. He genuinely wanted to stay far away from it. But if this helped the others, if it was truly an emergency as she suggested, not to mention if it helped her save Anna…she'd get him there.

"I'll bring him," she declared confidently. "We'll both be there in an hour." She just had to find him first. But that wouldn't be hard. She knew her husband well and if he had left early for work as she suspected there was only one place that he could be. So as quickly as possible she got ready for the day, throwing on what she could find that would be comfortable for running around in as life so often required of her over the last year or so and finally tied her hair up in a simple bun behind her so that it would be out of the way and left.

She parked the car alongside of the pawnshop. They were running late and if this took longer than she expected they could always drive to the jail house in about a minute. The back door was open, a good sign he was there, but where?

"Rumple?" she called when she came in. She didn't see him in the back, she didn't hear whispers out front. What could he possibility have to do out there if no one was here?

She went into the front room, but it looked empty too. Why on earth would he leave the shop un-

"Belle!" she glanced over and finally found him, there behind the counter, swinging the picture in front of the safe shut. That was it. He'd placed something in there, no doubt. But why? What on earth did he have to protect so desperately he couldn't wake her up first, or that he had to leave without an explanation. Two days in a row now…

"Hey, I've been looking all over the house for you, didn't even hear you leave."

"Well, I didn't want to wake you."

She reeled at that statement. She'd been right but she hadn't expected she'd be right! Watching her sleep was one of his pastimes. That's what he'd told her only days ago! So why would he just leave her there? More nightmares or…

"Just a few things to take care of before we open," he added casually as if understanding that she would have asked that eventually.

A few things like what? She never had to…then again she hadn't been here the last couple of days, what did she know of what needed taken care of in the shop anymore? She knew all too well how quickly things could change in a couple of days. She couldn't wait for this to be over, to hire someone to help at the library, and spend some time here again with him! She really did love this place just as much as her library and being away from it, away from him...she couldn't let mornings like this continue. But that was irrelevant at the moment. It was a conversation to be had some other time, when Emma and Anna didn't need her help so desperately.

"Well, whatever it is it'll have to wait," she insisted picking up his hand and holding it in her own. She knew he didn't want to get involved…but she wasn't sure they could afford that anymore. They'd end up in it one way or another. Technically they already were she supposed. "Emma called she needs to see us right away."

He gave an unhappy sigh at the pronouncement and pulled his hand out of hers and hunching over the counter already stubborn. He knew what it meant before she could even say it. "Belle-"

"Please Rumple, it's something to do with the Snow Queen."

"And what concern is she to us?!" he argued. "We've done everything to stay out of this and so far she hasn't come knocking on our doors, maybe it's for the better if we stay out of it."

Where had she heard an argument like that before? From herself. From Neal. The time they'd spent together during the year in the forest when they'd been so wrapped up in their own problems that they refused to give into anyone else's. He hadn't been there for that, but she had and she knew the damage that could come from thoughts like that. It wasn't pretty.

"But staying out of it won't help them," she whispered walking over and hooking her arm through his stiffened elbow. He stared straight ahead and pretended not to notice, but she knew that he always did notice in the end. "Staying out of it won't help Henry. He's caught up in the thick of it and I made a promise to Neal to keep him safe. If that means that we have to unhappily throw ourselves into every disaster that strikes this town then I'm going to do it! And I want you to do it with me. Please…it's what Neal would ask of you too."

Henry. Neal. The only words that caught his attention in her entire tirade. He glanced sideways at her looking stunned. "You made that promise to Neal?" She nodded. Yes. Yes she had. He didn't need to know that it was in the car while he'd been at his son's grave he just needed to know she'd made the vow. It didn't matter where or how. "Well…" he sighed and looked straight ahead again, the muscles in his hand tightening there on the glass. "I suppose looking into what they believe they'd found won't harm anything," he resigned.

She smiled, tightened her grip on his arm and leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you," she whispered. After this, they could talk about him not being there in the mornings some other time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so we've made it to that episode. But, never fear because, if I've done my job right, I've been building up to this so that nothing here seems nearly as random as it did when the episode first aired. Though I do have to apologize because the chapters for 4x06 are just so short. Most are much shorter than I like to have a Moments chapter be but that is due in part to the episode just not breaking up well. Sorry.
> 
> Thank you to Jewel415 and Judymulder for your comments on the last chapter. I'm so happy that you liked the baby talk! It was a chapter that I hoped everyone would like and I tried really hard to get just right and hearing that I nailed it is the best feeling in the world! Thank you, friends! You are awesome! Peace and Happy Reading!


	29. The Death of Her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I've said it before, but I've really been trying to build up her stress level to this point. Everything is responsible for throwing her off. She's newly married, her best friend is dead, Ruby is gone, she has the dagger, Anna is missing, and now all of a suddenly she can't keep her distance because Elsa wants to help? I'd say that everything that she's gone through sense she's been married has taken a toll and that toll is about to double for her in the next hour of her life!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!

Everyone was there by the time that they appeared in the police station. They weren't late, but she could tell that Regina hadn't exactly enjoyed waiting for them either. It was the first time that she'd seen her since she'd been married, since Marian had returned from the past with Emma and Hook, who now cast each other quiet glances that she was sure would tear Neal apart if he were here. Hook was different, finally wearing clothes fit more for this world than their own, or the high seas for that matter, but Regina…she looked tense as ever. Her scowl was nearly as bad as it had been when they'd been in the Enchanted Forest. She'd changed, again. She just hoped she wouldn't start to change back into the woman she'd first encountered on a dark road.

"There," she growled the second they appeared, "they're here. Can you tell us what this is all about now?"

"Alright," Emma sighed, "given the circumstances I suppose we can skip the formalities."

"We're all well acquainted with one another Miss Swan, please just get on with it so we can get back to our lives."

"Our lives may have to wait a bit after you see this," she muttered stepping up to a television and grabbing a remote. "I was going through some of my old things yesterday from before I came to Storybrooke and I found this."

"What?" Regina drawled as she sat back down, but her voice was suddenly drowned out by the speakers. Children. There were children laughing in the video. And when Emma moved just right she saw a face. The face of a boy. A young, very large boy, followed quickly by the face of a girl she only recognized by hair and a beauty mark.

Emma.

A much younger version of Emma, but Emma all the same. And then-

"Give it back! Kevin!" a voice cried out making her skin tingle. "The camera is Emma's not yours!"

She knew that voice. She knew the voice better than she knew the face. The last time she'd seen it she'd been far away but staring at it now, the tone of her flesh, the color of her hair, she knew…

Someone paused the movie and she felt her blood chill. That was her. Without a doubt that was Anna's Aunt. The one that had taken Anna away. The Snow Queen.

"Emma that's you!" she heard Mary Margaret whisper in awe.

Breathe. She had to breathe. She had to keep herself together. She had to contain the wild thoughts running through her mind, all the connections that she'd made! Or else everyone might find out right here, right now, including her husband, exactly what she was hiding. NO. She didn't want to tell him when she told everyone else. That wouldn't be fair. He'd need to know first. And she needed to take a deep breath and focus on the bigger picture right now so that no one found out and forced her into a position she didn't want to be in. Whether or not she'd taken Anna she was from their land…and yet there she was. Outside out Storybrooke. With Emma.

"You must be…"

"Thirteen. Maybe fourteen," Emma provided for her mother. She'd nearly forgotten that Mary Margaret or anyone else was in the room. Oh what was going on here? What had she started all those years ago?

"Are you missing the part where she's with the Snow Queen?" Regina pointed out angrily looking just as shocked as the rest of them. Suddenly she didn't seem too eager to get back to her life. "Emma, you knew her before she came to Storybrooke?"

"Apparently my run in with her in town wasn't the only memory she erased," she answered staring at the screen. "All this time in this…foster home or whatever this place was, it's gone!" she declared emotionlessly.

"I…I just don't understand how she ended up in this world," she blurted out suddenly. It was one of the few things she felt that she could talk about without feeling guilty. She didn't want to focus on memories right now she wanted to focus on the task at hand, the life she had to save. The Snow Queen was here. Did that mean Anna was too?

"We were hoping Gold could tell us that," Emma responded turning to look at her husband behind them all. So this was why they'd wanted him here. As much as she hated the cloak and dagger being used on the pair of them, even she had to admit asking him made sense. When it came to realm jumping he was the expert. So how had this woman done it before him? "You spent more time trying to get here than anyone, how the hell did she do it?"

"Considering the time I spent on the same task, I'd love to know," he answered sounding almost jealous…and understandably so. She just wished he had some kind of answer for them.

"Does it really matter how she got to Emma?" David questioned. "Shouldn't we all be more concerned about why?"

"Obviously she needed her for something," Regina supplied. "But what? That's our next problem," she said sounding well and truly stumped. Why she needed Emma? Why she'd taken Anna? Anna. No she didn't care why she just wanted to know where. Where had she taken her?

"Well…we know she's hiding somewhere in the North Woods," David stated, "combed every inch of her shop, tore apart her house, she must have cleared everything out days before."

"Then she must be hiding something," Hook suggested.

"Where?" Emma demanded, drawing them back to the question at hand. She had no idea that they'd done all that but no matter what it was all irrelevant if they didn't find something soon!

"What about her ice cream truck?" Henry questioned after a moment. She glanced over at him confused, upset that she'd nearly forgotten he was there when she'd told Rumple that he was the reason they needed to come.

Ice cream truck? Did she have an ice cream truck?

"Whoa, Snow Queen has an ice cream truck?" she heard Emma ask in a disbelieving tone. Obviously she wasn't the only one to not notice this.

Henry offered a shrug and a smirk to his family. "I'm a kid. I notice these kind of things," he explained reasonably. Was that really why she'd never noticed? She wasn't a kid? Well, she couldn't imagine spending her time during the curse in a padded cell had helped that much either. But this might. If she had an ice cream truck where was it? Was that the next place they had to look? Anna was a strong woman, she doubted that she'd be in an actual ice cream truck but they might be able to find something to explain how she'd gotten here from Arendelle, how to cross realms, how to get back, and why Emma was so important to her.

"We'll split up into groups," David ordered quickly. "We'll search the town, the woods…Hook, Emma, Regina you'll take the west. Gold you're with me for the east."

Oh, she didn't even need to look at his face to know that wasn't going to work. She'd barely got him out here to begin with, Rumpelstiltskin was not a team player the way she was and he certainly wasn't one for hiking around the woods with David looking for an ice cream truck. Surely he'd-

"I think we all know, I work best alone." She had to fight the urge to drop her jaw at the comment. He was going? He was really going to go and help them search a forest for an ice cream truck! He was going alone but still…even in tension he could make her break out into a smile. On his own he was probably better than with David, though it would be something to see sometime.

"Belle how are you at tracking?" David asked suddenly making her jaw drop again. Her? Her?! He was asking her? She felt dumbfounded. No. No, her and tracking never seemed to go well. Her and adventures never seemed to go well actually! The only time her adventures paid off for anyone including people in this group it was when she was in the library doing research. Books were her weapons and reading her skill and right now, Anna needed her to go back to the library and look more into the Snow Queen. She needed her to go to the shop get what she needed for her spell, and figure out what was hiding in those books! They might tell her where the Snow Queen was hiding her niece.

"Ah…actually I-I think I'll be more helpful at the library," she dismissed immediately. "Maybe I can dig something up on the Snow Queen," she suggested, hoping that would be enough to excuse her from this so that she could do what she had to do. It seemed to work well enough for the others to casually brush her off so they could-

"I'd like to come with you, Belle," Elsa said suddenly, turning toward her. "If that's okay? Maybe something about my sister will be there too." She felt her mouth go dry as she choked on the words she wanted to say. Yes, that was exactly what she was hoping she'd find…but with Elsa? "Unless…you'd rather not have the company."

"No!" she managed to smile feeling her heart turn over in her chest. It was one thing to lie to Rumple, another to lie to Anna's sister. She wouldn't have guessed that would be more difficult and yet it clearly was. No. No, she didn't particularly want company but…but telling her that would be suspicious. She had always welcomed help where she could get it…maybe…maybe this would work out. Maybe this would be okay. Maybe she could still do what needed to be done, the library was big enough for the two of them.

"No, not at all I would love some," she finally said in a much more pleasant tone. Elsa was eager. Off and ready to go the moment the words were out of her mouth. She could do this. She could. She glanced quickly over her husband before she left, but had to turn away at his proud encouraging smile. He had no idea. And this was killing her inside.


	30. Unignorable Hounding Thoughts

It was surprising just how familiar with the town Elsa was after only a couple of days. At first she'd taken the lead when they left the police station, but as it turned out Elsa didn't need her to get anywhere, least of all to the library or the shop. Which made ignoring her presence difficult. She talked the entire way, about important things as well as unimportant things. She asked her about research, about where they should start looking for things on Anna. She assured her that she had a collection of books from their realm, not just Mist Haven, and she should probably focus on finding the ones from Arendelle and more specifically look into the woman calling herself the Snow Queen. There was no telling what trouble she'd gotten into in Arendelle and if she had power like Elsa's surely there would be record of it somewhere.

So she didn't lie at first. She wasn't entirely honest but she certainly wasn't lying. She was simply omitting important facts. Like the fact that the carts of books she gave her to go through from their realm had already been searched and she'd removed everything about Arendelle for herself, like the fact that even if she found those books she wouldn't be able to read them because the ink was gone, and she certainly didn't tell her that the reason they'd gone to Rumple's shop first, or that the "things she had to pick up" were actually ingredients she needed to bring the writing on the books back.

Ground up granite. Unicorn horn. A compass needle. And a strand of his golden thread for good measure, to enact the magic that she couldn't. Alone in the back room of her library, as Elsa searched uselessly through the shelves she assigned her she ground the ingredients, mixed, ground, and mixed again until the blackness inside was nothing but fine powder. With a paint brush she'd gotten from the back of the shop she dipped the fine hairs into the bowl, took a deep breath, hoping that this would work, then brushed it across the blank whiteness of the paper before her where she found the unfinished sentence  _"Queen Sonja gave birth to a girl, a daughter named"_.

Her jaw dropped and she smiled proudly at what the brush revealed: words.

 _"…Queen Sonja gave birth to a girl a daughter named Ingrid. A few years later a middle daughter followed named Helga, and soon after their third and final child Gerda was born"_.

Two sisters? Two?! Anna had not one aunt but two?! She'd never heard of another aunt before. Oh, it was all revealed all the pages she was missing, the blank slates filled in perfectly with only a brush stroke!

There it was. Disappeared. The two sisters disappeared. Where and when? She didn't know. Maybe it was in the pages somewhere but for now…now she needed to get the other book she'd found, the one missing bits and pieces of the sentences then find time to read them here in the back or after Elsa had given up and gone. The other book.

She quickly made her way back out into the room to collect what she had gathered the other day. Elsa was still there, right where she'd left her by the book shelves only she was staring off into space looking like a woman haunted. She knew the feeling. But hopefully with these books she'd be able to figure this out and lose that-

"There doesn't seem to be anything from Arendelle here," Elsa muttered giving up on looking through the useless books on the cart she'd given her. She really should have had a plan for when all that failed. "Do you know where to look?" she questioned. Of course she knew where to look. It was her library. She just wasn't sure if she was ready for her to look yet.

"No, I'm…I'm sorry I'm really not that familiar with Arendelle," she lied. "Or…or your sister."

Elsa looked disappointed, but accepted it and even offered her a smile as she turned back to her cart of books. She bit her lip, fighting the urge to march over and correct herself through a stream of tears. No. She couldn't. But it was also sickening how easy lying was becoming for her. From one lie right into another with barely the blink of an eye. How horrible?

There was a frustrated noise by the cart as she realized that Elsa had given the thing a frustrated shake. "Okay…" she muttered turning around with her jaw clenched. "So if I can't find something from Arendelle…maybe I can find something from all the Kingdoms!" she concluded. "We may be small but we are royalty aren't we? I've seen dozens of books on heraldry. Maybe I can at least figure out if there is a reason for us to know each other. If she was a courtier or the wife of a noble man…"

That was…a reasonable argument. One she'd used herself when she wanted to find out if it was possible that the Snow Queen was her aunt. But she had to bite her tongue as she watched the frustrated girl begin another search. This was torture. Yesterday the library had been her haven, now, with Elsa here, it felt like her undoing. She was sweating, her heart pounding, she wanted so desperately to tell her that she already knew! She wanted to confess that the Snow Queen was their Aunt because Anna had told her that herself but…that would mean revealing her secret! There had to be another way to do this, to ease this pressure in her chest this weight that she felt on her shoulders and the itch in the back of her throat!

Elsa needed something to do. She wanted the truth to be known! Maybe it wasn't a bad idea to let her focus on finding her aunt, Ingrid or Helga. Maybe she could let her simply tumble upon it on her own. Then she wouldn't be carrying a terrible secret alone, or at least not all of it, she'd just be…just covering it up and hiding her own tracks. Still, if it worked long enough for her to actually find something useful and good, something that could help her get to Anna, it would all be worth it…wouldn't it?

The Queen took a seat at a table and covered it with books, requesting that she bring to her anything and everything that she had. It took time, but she did as she requested. History books, political books, heraldry, geography…anything that she could think of that might help until Elsa smiled up at her, looking almost grateful saying "I don't know where to begin."

"Have you done research before?" she asked digging through the stacks of books she'd left her.

"Not really," she answered. "I lived a very sheltered life until recently. Books were for grand adventures without ever having to leave my bedroom, but research…let's just say solving mysteries was always Anna's forte." She knew that. That was why she'd met her to begin with! But she had to catch herself before she opened her mouth to point that out. She might know that Anna was more hands on, but Elsa didn't know that she knew. "She was inquisitive," Elsa went on with a smile. "When she stumbled on to something that didn't belong she made it her business to get to the bottom of it…that didn't always make her the most popular person in the palace."

She was naturally curious. Her head was beginning to spin trying to keep everything straight. Wasn't this always how lies began to unravel? Focus on the present. Not on what Elsa was saying about Anna. Research she could help with! Maybe she could even make it so she stumbled upon the information quickly.

"Well," she sighed. "If I were you I'd start with these books here. They are records and family trees of important people from our world."

"You think my sister and I will be in here?" she questioned pulling one of the books closer to her. Yes. Yes she did. And she also believed someone else would be too.

"Well, royalty is about as important as it gets in our world…I'd be surprised if you aren't in one of these at least. But…" she pushed another column of books toward her. "Just in case you can't find anything these are histories from our realm. Not Arendelle specifically but hopefully you'll be able to find something on someone with abilities like your own."

"Hopefully," she breathed pulling one toward her. "But…how…how recent are these books do you think."

She shrugged then glanced at the yellowish edges of the paper, took in the fact that they were mostly intact, that the leather didn't look too horribly cracked. Her thought? It was probably written just before the curse was cast. Of course that could only be proven by reading it! "No more than a few decades," she assured her. "Why?"

"Nothing," she sighed. "Just wouldn't want to mix up one of her 'somethings' with one of my own," she muttered flipping the page open and glancing at what was written there.

For the most part the afternoon passed, but it felt slow, like every heartbeat was farther apart than it should have been. Elsa did her research, she pulled book after book out that might help her figure out that Elsa was related to the woman, all the while she watched as the books that she thought would truly help went untouched and unread. The books she needed to restore went undusted. Anna went undiscovered. She couldn't sit still. She flittered around the rooms, she tapped her foot, she bounced and sighed, and the clock kept ticking on and on and on taunting her!

There was too much on her mind. Too much time was passing and instead of helping her friend she was beginning to feel like the only good she was doing was keeping others from her, especially when every book Elsa closed snapped shut with more and more force each time, leaving her feeling like pebbles were being added to her stomach. Her mouth was dry. She skipped lunch because she wasn't hungry. More than once she'd gotten up the courage to tell Elsa what she knew and each and every time her confidence wavered and she shrank back into the safety of her shelves gasping for breath as her body seemed to be in a perpetual state of panic.

Minutes later she heard another book slam shut and get angrily pushed aside. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat but it was just too big and she was too frustrated. She'd given her the answer! It was right there, somewhere in the stack of books, why did she have to pull all the others out after the ones that she needed?!

Why couldn't she just tell her about the woman? About Elsa's aunt. About Anna and what she'd seen her do to her?

She could. She could do it. No matter what happened it would feel better than what she was doing now, wouldn't it! And if they scorned her, if they didn't trust her anymore, if Rumple realized that she wasn't as perfect as she seemed…she'd deserve it. That would just have to be a burden she'd bear. She could do it. She could go out there! She could face this and tell the truth and get Anna back!

She didn't even bother to put the books in her arms away. Just marched out from between the shelves and…

Elsa wasn't researching. Not anymore. She was crying. Not badly, just enough for her to see the tears in her eyes as she stared unfocused into the beyond. Snowflakes. They hovered in the air around her. Good or bad? She'd seen magic go either way. Her determination faltered as she made the final steps to the table. Why was this so easy in theory and so hard in practice?!

As soon as she set the books on the table Elsa distracted her by waving her hand in front of her, her motions sharp from frustration. "This is pointless!" she growled. "I don't know why I thought I'd find anything about Anna in here."

No. No, it wasn't pointless! She'd followed the same train of thought she probably would have if she'd been working alone! And the answers were there she knew they had to be she just had to keep going! She needed to remember why she was doing this!

"You know she's somewhere," she reminded her. "You know she's alive! You heard her heartbeat in Bo Peep's staff, right?"

"If what the Snow Queen told me is true and Anna is the one that put me in that urn then maybe she doesn't want me to find her!"

"That's not true, Elsa!" she pushed. She hadn't known that The Snow Queen had suggested that, but she knew that it wasn't the truth at all! The Anna she knew had loved her sister and braved so much to get back to her and assure her safety as well as the safety of her people! She'd never lock Elsa in that urn! And it wasn't that she didn't want to be found. She was a prisoner.

"You're just saying that to make me feel better-"

"No!" she argued. "I promise you I'm not!" That was the part that she hated most of all. She wasn't doing it to make Elsa feel better, she wasn't even sure if she was doing it to find Anna anymore. She was doing it with the hope that she might feel better! Was it working?

The Queen looked at her for a moment, skeptically…suspiciously. No, it wasn't working at all. "How would you know what my sister thinks?" she questioned. "You've never even met her."

For a moment her heart took off, beating rapidly against her chest again as she felt the panic swell up inside of her. No. It wasn't suspicion. Just disbelief. But it might be if she didn't answer this just right. "Well…just from what you've been saying, I…I feel like I know her," she responded. Not as smooth as she would have liked. Certainly not as smooth as Rumpelstiltskin's lies, but it was good enough…wasn't it? "You two were very close," she went on, "something must have pulled you apart, something beyond your control!"

"All my memories are gone," she cried, barely managing to hold her tears in now, "and no one in this town has even been to Arendelle!" She felt herself shake. That wasn't true either and she wanted to say the words she wanted to say them so badly…but she just couldn't! "I need to face the truth Belle. No one here can help me and I'm afraid…I'm afraid that means I might never see Anna again."

She wanted to say something. But she couldn't tell her. Not now, not like this. The words were frozen there on her tongue. She could justify it. She couldn't tell her because she'd only panic the Queen further. No one needed that. It was a legitimate excuse…she just didn't know if it was why she couldn't seem to speak the words she needed to say.

She took a deep breath and sighed, trying to ignore the sounds of her sniffles. She had to say something, even if it wasn't the absolute truth, she could certainly give her  _a_ truth. "Look," she swallowed. "You will," she assured her. "I know it. Now…keep looking…I'll be back!"

"What?" Elsa questioned looking surprised. "Where are you going?"

Another question she couldn't answer. Her skin was crawling and if she couldn't get her mouth to say the words that she needed to then she needed to leave, to clear her head and get some fresh air. "There's something I…need to take care of," she told her. "I uh…I forgot to check the books at the shop and my home, we won't leave anything unturned Elsa I promise. Stay here and keep searching through the books I've left you. I will be back once I know if there is anything there we can use! We will find, Anna," she promised. One way or another. She'd keep that promise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the stress keeps building and building and...brace yourself Rumbellers, I'm about to try and walk us through the craziest thing we've ever seen our girl do.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	31. So Be It

She went to the closest place she had to escape. The shop. It was easy. Right across the street and that was where she'd told Elsa she was planning on going any way. No one was there. Rumple was still out searching the woods she imagined, being helpful and productive. And she…

In the back she let her body shrink down into the cot and did her best to gulp in air.

This wasn't working. She could tell herself that she was going to fix it, that she was going to go and tell Elsa everything but every time she tried she suddenly found the words stolen from her mouth. And she could tell herself that what she was doing in the library was progress but it wasn't! Unless she could tell others what she knew, everything that she discovered, it was all useless! So why couldn't she just tell them?!

On and on the circle went in her head. Tell. Can't tell. Tell. Can't tell. Tellcan'ttelltellcan'ttell. It was driving her mad! She needed another plan. Something different something proactive to find Anna, to give her that strength to get the words out of her mouth. She needed Neal. She wanted Neal! She wanted to talk with him and explain what was going on! And then she wanted to know what he thought and felt about all of this! Sneaking around, making plans, that had always been his forte! And listening...he could listen better than anyone she'd ever known. If Neal were here now she could talk to him, they could make a plan, all because he'd understand not just what had happened then but what was happening now and why this was so important for her to fix at all costs!

But she didn't have Neal. She certainly didn't have Ruby anymore. So what was the next best thing? What would Neal do if he was in this situation? He'd tell someone, or her, he'd get help, another set of eyes, and then he'd go into the forest to track the Snow Queen down himself and set Anna free.

But that wasn't a possibility. There were too many holes in that story. She didn't have Neal. She wasn't that good at tracking. She didn't know where the Snow Queen was, if Anna was with her or not, and if she did meet the Snow Queen…she could ask nicely. But in her experience villains were complex people and asking nicely rarely worked. The woman would turn her into a Snowwoman before she could utter two words.

This again. Magic. Her old enemy and ally. She knew it. She knew it well enough to enact spells and make potions, she could do just about everything an ordinary person could do except for actually spontaneously use it against others. As well as she knew magic she wasn't magical and that set her at a disadvantage. Wasn't that why Anna had slipped on the cliff the first place?! Because her aunt had the magical ability to cause a storm that shook the earth? One on one they might have been fine. If she'd dared to show her face that night they might have gotten away if Anna had a chance to use that…

The hat.

The one that Anna had been carrying! Or at least the hat she claimed that she'd been carrying. It hadn't exactly looked like a hat. It looked like…it was a circle. Yes a gold circle and there had been something over top of it. Blue. And…polka dots…stars…something decorative like that? It didn't matter. She would recognize it if she saw it again! Brief glimpse or not she was certain she'd know it if she was looking for it. It was perfect. Exactly what she needed. If the Snow Queen didn't have her powers then she was no threat she could talk to her, completely safe. She could neutralize the threat! It wouldn't just be Anna she could save the town as well! She…had to actually find the thing first.

The last time she'd seen it…Anna had it. It had been in her bag when she'd fallen and then…the Snow Queen had it. She felt her heart sink again. She'd seen her take something from Anna's bag and hold it close before the two of them had vanished. The hat. It had to have been the hat, what else would the Snow Queen have wanted?! She had it. Or at least she was sure she would still have it if she knew what it was, no one would get rid of such a thing. It was in her possession but so far no one had mentioned anything about her carrying a mysterious object which meant that it was at her hiding place. That made things significantly easier.

Oh if Neal were here they'd already be out there! "We find her place, sneak in while she's out, get the hat, and find a way to use it on her," he'd plot easily enough. It was simple. Simpler than the other one had been. But still missing key elements. The first one being her partner in crime. She still needed Neal to do the tracking for her and be look out! This required two sets of eyes. "Who says the other set has to be mine?" the words echoed through her mind in Neal's tone and for a minute she almost dismissed it because she'd have to be crazy to listen to a voice like that in her head only…

Only he had a point. Who said the eyes had to be Neal's? He'd only ever wanted her safety, her happiness and there was one other person in the world that wanted that too. One other person that would want her to be a hero and follow her blindly without reason just because he always wanted her safe above everything else. Rumple.

She could take him with her. By all accounts he would actually be better at this than Neal. He didn't need to be a tracker he just needed to be the Dark One. The magic wasn't dependent on what he did or did not know, all she had to do was take the dagger and command-

Command. Force.

She felt a shiver creep up the back of her spine. No. No she couldn't do something like that. She wouldn't need to, he'd come with her because he wanted her to be safe, because he loved her!

He'd want an explanation though. And she just wasn't sure that she could give it. And without an explanation how would he ever understand? How would he ever understand the truth! That she'd lied to him, that she'd kept him at a distance on purpose, that she'd done something so horrible to-

It wouldn't matter. He'd help her no matter what.

Unless he didn't. She'd seen herself that sometimes in his effort to help her, to "protect" her he sometimes went overboard. Explaining all this to him could be just as dangerous as telling him outright! He had magic he could over power her and then who would help Anna?!

He had magic. But she had the dagger.

Sacrifices. Her mother had sacrificed her life so that she would live so that she would go out and do good things in the world. This one event with Anna tarnished all the good she'd ever done. She just needed one day, one chance to make it all right! It wasn't as if she was planning on killing someone. She was planning on helping someone. Elsa, Anna, Emma, the entire town would benefit if she did this! And Rumple…

He'd forgive her. He loved her, he'd forgive her. And if he couldn't…then that might be something that she deserved after all this was over. The sacrifice of a life. Her happiness. Anna's supposed death had led to her happiness, to this marriage. If it took a blow so that she could right the wrong…so be it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well...how did I do. This chapter was hard because even though I know it's not the right thing I had to get her to the point in her mind where it is the right thing, or where she can at least justify it as the right thing. I hope that I did that. I hope that I did that while also making the logic seem backward. "He'll do it for her because he'd want to and if he didn't then she'd make him because he'd want to..." it makes sense but it's a backwards logic. This chapter was hard and so was the next. I can't wait to hear what you think about them.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	32. Crossing The Line

She did feel bad. And afraid. And sad. And terrible…but it was what had to be done.

The North Woods. That was where David had said she was hiding. She wasn't that familiar with the terrain so she looked around the shop and quickly packed what she thought might be helpful. She found some boots, a length of rope, and all the while her thoughts haunted her. She felt like she'd just gotten back from a funeral it wasn't until she had trouble locating a scarf and removed the one that she kept around the dagger in her bag that she realized the funeral was for her short lived marriage.

She couldn't bear the thought. Instead she raced into the back, forcing herself to think forward as she pulled the coat down from a hanger, placed the scarf and boots there as well and turned to find the place she'd left the pick axe, in a vase that held old walking canes. "Don't worry Anna," she breathed looking over it. "I will find you." But before she could bundle it all together her eyes fell on those canes and guilt seized her heart all over again.

She'd find Anna or die trying today. But what was the cost of this. As much as she expected Rumple to want to go with her…she expected she was going to have to use the dagger. Which meant that she was choosing Anna over her husband. And she didn't see any way they'd recover from that. Part of her hoped he'd act strange today and that he'd agree without a second glance and protect her as she risked her life…but she doubted it.

Her mouth went dry when she saw his shadow appear in the door way. Her heart leapt into her throat when he put his hands on the door knob. By the time he came into the shop she was shaking, her body set on fire with nervous energy. She was so tense. Could he see that?

"Belle?" he questioned his voice surprised but also suspicious. Yes. Yes he could see it. Not only in her eyes it was seeping through to her bones and crawling through her soul. "Where are you headed?" he asked looking her over.

She had to answer. She had to do this, she'd spent so much time with him over the last few days and neglected Anna shamefully. That had to change. She had to fix this! She had to be the hero that he knew she was…she just hoped that once he learned the truth he would understand. And she hoped, beyond hope she admitted, that this conversation wouldn't go to the place that she feared and knew that it would.

"To the North Woods," she answered. "Where the Snow Queen's hiding." He'd agree. He would. He might not like working with David, but he would with her, he'd help her! He'd want to go if only to make sure that she was safe! Wouldn't he?

"And what business do you have with her?" he asked looking utterly confused at her latest proclamation.

What a strange choice of words. What business did she have with the Snow Queen? Very little. That had been made abundantly clear to her by the woman herself. According to her she had no business with her because she wasn't family…but that didn't mean it wasn't her business. She might not be family but she knew her family business. And she had to rescue that family! But how was she supposed to explain that to Rumple? His entire life had been nothing but family business and whoever wasn't a part of that family business had never been his concern. No. Maybe she'd been wrong. He never would have understood this.

"I have to fix a mistake I made a long time ago." It was the best she could do. She simply didn't have time to explain or even begin to see if he'd be willing to listen. He was why she'd wasted so much time over these last few days. He was why her life had flourished ever since she'd returned from that terrible experience while Anna's had disappeared! Right now she just needed him to agree to come with her there would be time for an explanation after the Snow Queen was safe, once she had the hat, and she told her where Anna was, and the town was safe! He could pass judgment on her then. But not before.

"What are you talking about?" he questioned stepping toward her with that wonderful smile that made her weak in the knees. Oh she couldn't give into it again. She couldn't give into him like she had so many times at Anna's expense.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you," she answered honestly. "You wouldn't understand."

He looked wounded for a second, hurt and shocked and surprised. It was in the twinge of his eyes, but it was there and for a moment it was that look that made her think she might give in, confess right that moment tell him everything! She hated lying to him! But then he corrected himself. "Whether or not that's true the fact remains that she defeated both Emma and Regina," he pointed out, "she is far more dangerous than you realize!"

"I know," she insisted. That was why she planned to make her not dangerous before she actually met her. But if that didn't work? If she happened to be hiding in her lair…that's what she needed him for, whether or not he understood, whether or not he knew! She needed him. Not her husband, at the very least she needed the Dark One. The thought turned her stomach, but she pushed it aside…for Anna. "That's why I was…I was hoping you'd come with me."

He looked at her, dumbfounded for a moment before he offered a snort of laughter. "I'm sorry Belle that's out of the question!" he blanched walking away from her. "I won't let you anywhere near her!"

She'd been afraid of that, so terribly afraid that he would be too worried about her safety and over react as he had so many times before. But he didn't understand that she had to do this whether she'd be safe or not! Anna certainly hadn't been all these years! And yet she knew he'd never agree to that logic because he didn't understand. Which left her with one option and one option only. He couldn't keep her away anymore. Physically he might be bigger and stronger than her. But magically…

"I was worried you were going to say that…" her body was doing it without her ever actually agreeing to it and she had to fight the urge to put it away when she realized what she'd done. She began digging through her bag removed the dagger from her purse, holding tears back the entire time. She had to do this. For Anna. "Because uh…I really…really didn't want to do this," she threatened, holding the thing tight in her hand so she wouldn't give in to the temptation to throw it away from her, rush forward and burst into tears on his shoulder. This was for the greater good. She wasn't like Zelena…was she?

She nearly broke into tears the moment he turned around and registered what she'd done, what she had in her hand. She hated this. But it was what had to be done and if she kept repeating that enough maybe she'd start to believe it. "Belle…" the small step he took away from her cut right to her heart, "I gave you that dagger because I trusted you." She knew that. She knew that better than anyone but…there was a time someone else had trusted her and she'd let her down. She couldn't live with it anymore, not with Anna's sister sitting in her library afraid she'd never see her again! She had to know! She had to do something! No matter what it took! "Because I thought you'd never want to control me!" he reasoned desperately.

"I know!" she insisted. She didn't want to do this, but he could have removed the burden from her and just agreed to her request without it! But since he hadn't…so that meant… "I know and I'm so so sorry Rumple, but if you won't come with me willingly…what choice do I have?" she questioned.

Yes. Yes, she'd given him a choice. He'd refused because he'd wanted her to be safe. This was the only way to make sure that she would be safe because one way or another she was going and he was going to come with her. He'd given her no choice. So she swallowed her guilt, stepped up to him, and held the dagger as she had that day he'd made her give the command, which also hadn't been her choice. He shrank from it this time, never took his eyes off of it as if it was giant bee capable of killing them both with a single sting. Maybe that was because if she managed to say the words it would kill them. But after all these years, having him in her heart while Anna had been suffering…did she really deserve him anyway? Maybe she'd condemned them before they had ever started.

Her hands shook this time as they hadn't the last time, when Emma had been here with Elsa. "Take me to the Snow Queen," she commanded. "To the place in the North Woods where she's hiding," she clarified. She didn't need to run into her until she actually had that hat with her. The first thing she needed to do was find it.

In a flash of red smoke the shop dissolved around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously I had to add in the last line there because on the show the idea of Belle asking him to take her to the Snow Queen is dramatic but doubtfully what she wanted and obviously not where Rumple took her. So I clarified. How did this chapter turn out? You be the judge. For me? Jury's out. For you? I hope that you think it's good enough. I know that the subject matter is far from good but I'm not trying to cover anything up here. I just hope that what you are reading makes sense and maybe even more sense than it made when this episode first aired. That is my goal.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	33. The Sting of Forbidden Commandments

She'd done it. She'd actually done it! And she was sure it wasn't the magic of the red smoke around them, making the shop disappear and woods appear as their new surrounding, that made her feel like she was going to be sick at any moment. But it was done. And unless she was prepared to find a brain, a heart, a sword, and a newborn there was nothing that she could do to change it. Nothing she could do to make it any better except move on with the plan she'd crafted, hope that it all worked out as best as it could, and then they'd deal with what she'd just done. Or she would. When she went to bed a lonely hero tonight.

So she looked around the chilly green forest, hoping to see the entrance to the hideout right in front of her and yet all she saw was foliage. "Where is it?" she asked, her head spinning every which way except in his direction. She didn't know if she could bear to meet his eyes right now.

"Well if the magic brought us here then it must be here somewhere," he answered, his voice barely a whisper. She ignored it and continued searching the area. More forest. Was it possible it was hidden with magic? Magic always had its fatal flaws, he'd taught her that. So where was the flaw. She glanced behind her. Trees. Boulders. A tall wall of rock. A cliff and…there! Something glinting?! But only when she turned the right way. Still there was something there she knew it!

"Over there!" she pointed out.

"Belle!" he hollered after her, she didn't stop to glance back, just kept her eyes on the glint and walked forward toward it until…a cave! With dazzling icy crystals dripping from its mouth. Yes. That was what she needed to find! Lucky for her it hadn't been hidden by magic-it was just hidden!

"This is it!" she exclaimed. "This is where she's hiding?!" she questioned glancing over at his less-than-happy expression and wishing that she hadn't. Yes, avoiding his eyes was definitely the better thing to do right now.

"Indeed," he answered quickly looking into the caves mouth in an attempt to not look at her. Oh, she'd never make this up to him. Never! "But she's not at home," he pointed out suddenly. "I don't sense her magic."

She nodded at his pronouncement, trusting it completely. Trust. She'd certainly never get that back from him!

"Good," she breathed looking at the mouth. It was perfect really, exactly what she wanted if only she wasn't using her husband as her own personal watch dog. But she couldn't think about that now. She was here. She could get the hat, maybe look around a bit for Anna, and get out. Then they could begin to address exactly what had happened between them today! For now she couldn't think like herself, only Neal. The second pair of eyes. That was what she needed now.

"Okay," she sighed stepping up and looking back at him. She felt bad. She needed something else from him. But as long as she'd already demanded the world she may as well demand the moon too. "You stay here as look out," she commanded, "I'm going in." She turned once more back to the cave. Courage. She needed courage. Just to get her in, find the hat, and-

"Belle!" his hand suddenly wrapped around her arm, "you're not going in there alone!" he insisted, nearly bringing her to tears again. More protection. She'd done something so horrible and he still just wanted to protect her? But… No. No she could do this part on her own. She needed to do this part on her own!

"I won't be long I just need to find something," she assured him before heading up the hill again.

"What could you possibly want from the Snow Queen's cave?!" he demanded, fighting back as he continued to follow after her. Her will really must not have been in this. If she really didn't want him to come after her then he shouldn't have been able to. That must have been how much she wanted his forgiveness! She wanted to tell him. She finally wanted to tell him the entire sad story, after all this she'd have to tell him, he deserved that much from her. But for now…for now she had only the time enough to offer one less than perfect answer. At least it wouldn't be a lie.

"A hat," she responded. He reached out, a light touch at her elbow made her stop in her tracks and look at him again, his eyes searching her for more of an explanation. "That can strip a magical being of all their power," she finished. She glanced back at the cave. She had to do this. Now. It was a good plan, literally solid so long as the Snow Queen stayed away!

"Sounds like a remarkable object," Rumple responded drawing her back to him where she saw…desire. Wanting. He was trying. He was trying so hard, he really did just want to understand all this because he'd always understood her up until today's mystery. Her head felt so backwards. Anna was worth all of this, worth all of what she'd done! Wasn't she? Of course! A human life was worth…anything? She didn't know anymore. And that was terrifying. "Almost too good to be true, which means it probably is!" he argued, still trying to talk sense into her. Sense. That time had passed long ago.

"It isn't," she snapped. She couldn't forget this thing as long as she lived! It was the answer to everything and that was all he needed to worry about! "And I know she has it and I need to get it from her! It's the only way to force her to tell us where Anna is!"

"So this is about Elsa's sister," he assumed, cutting her off again as she made a move closer to the cave. "Why are you so invested in a girl you never met?" he questioned further.

She snapped. One moment she was fine and the next she just couldn't take his questioning any longer! She knew the way he worked, she'd played this cat and mouse game once before herself, working desperately to get answers from him but it had taken time…she didn't have time! She'd wasted enough of it this week with him as it was. For once, Anna had to come first!

"Because a hero," she answered, "always helps strangers!" And friends. And this help…it was long overdue! And he was going to let her go no matter what! She pulled the dagger up, allowing it to separate the two of them while there was still time, ignoring the flinch and his sad face as he stared at it. She could see how much he desperately wanted to take it from her and cast it away. She hoped that he could see how much she desperately wanted to get rid of it…after all of this was over. "Now keep watch," she commanded heading back up the hill. "I'll call out to you if I need your help."

The command left a sour taste in her mouth and it wasn't the chill of the ice that made her shiver as she went inside at how easily it had fallen from her mouth. She may as well have promised him a bone if he was a good boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ::Bangs head against desk. Repeatedly:: I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I hate having chapters this short but this little scene just didn't fit anywhere on it's own! Sorry...
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	34. What She Became

She shivered as she walked into the cave and wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm. It was freezing. Thirty maybe forty degrees cooler than it was outside. But she couldn't let the cold hinder her. The hat. She had to find the hat. And the sooner she did, the sooner she could get out of here and figure out what came after this mess she'd been creating for decades.

"The hat must be in here somewhere," she whispered to herself glancing around. And if she happened to find Anna trapped here as well then…well she would certainly welcome that surprise. But for now she just needed the hat and had to be completely focused on that with every ounce of concentration she had. Only…she couldn't see it. The entire place was white! Table, sofa, candles, boxes, all of it icy white! That box thing that the hat came in was supposed to be gold she was sure of it. Her memory of what it looked like might have been foggy but she was certain it was gold on the outside. In a place like this it should stick out like a sore-

"Belle!"

She jumped and looked around as her name echoed off the frozen cavern walls. Her heart leapt into her throat and her eyes searched the space, afraid of the person that had called for her! But she saw no one. Funny. Hadn't she heard-

"Belle?" the voice called again making her bones chill in a completely different way than they had before. The voice. It was wrong. Sing-song in a taunting vile way that made her entire body shake.

Maybe…maybe this was a bad idea. She took a step away, clutching the dagger tighter, prepared to summon him should she need-

"Belle!" the voice called out again more persistent than the last. "Over here…Belle!" Here. She should turn. She should leave right now. But…here? Where was here? "Over here, Belle," it insisted a bit gentler.

There. Just over her shoulder. Something…something white. White but not ice. Something covered by a sheet. "Over here…here!" the voice mocked.

Oh she had a feeling that she knew what was under that, because she'd once lived with a terrible beast that kept something covered up in the corner just like this. A beast that had issued a dire warning about the objects.  _"Mirrors can be dangerous objects…when you look into a mirror you should always keep in mind that you never know what might be looking back."_  Trouble. She didn't need him here now to know that. Mirror or not what was behind this sheet was trouble! But somehow that didn't stop her from reaching out and pulling the sheet down to reveal what she'd feared.

A mirror.

"Hello Belle!" she gasped and stepped back. She wished she'd listened to herself. To him. She wasn't crazy. She was perfectly sane. She wasn't crazy but…the person in the mirror, talking to her was…her. Only not her. She looked…she looked fake in a way. Too perfect. She looked like the person she sometimes worried that he saw her as instead of who she really was. "I was hoping you'd find me," she said sweetly to…herself. It reminded her of the way Zelena used to talk. She didn't like this, not one bit! And yet she just couldn't stop staring at the thing! "I'm surprised you were brave enough to come in here!" she said.

"I had to," she answered automatically, warning bells in her brain were ringing madly, telling her not to answer, not to talk or interact with it. Cover it up and leave! But she just couldn't take her eyes off it. Or stop talking. "I have to find a way to help Anna."

"Why?" she questioned with a small snort of amused laughter. "You never really cared much for her before."

No! The words hit her like a slap across the face and left her reeling at her own accusation. No that wasn't right. She swore it wasn't! Even if it didn't appear that way. "That's not true," she choked out.

"Sure it is," she accused with a wicked sneer. "You choose that rock over her! You had to remember what happened to your mother...no matter what the cost."

Yes. Yes that had happened. But her mother had just died! All she'd wanted was her memories! She'd been so sad and so desperate, if only she'd gotten her fingers around that precious gem she might know today what had happened. Maybe then she could have…No! No that wasn't true, it was only partially true. Or maybe wholly true. It was…it was…she just couldn't remember right now. Why was it so hard to see things clearly?! Or was it just that she was seeing them clearly for the first time since that horrible event? Was she suddenly remembering everything as it truly had been and not what she'd twisted it into to live with the guilt?

"I…made a mistake," she admitted. She'd been young, only a girl then, considering what she was now, "I didn't mean to-

"Ruin someone's life?!" she finished for her. "Certainly wasn't your most heroic moment. Not that you've ever really been hero material."

No! No, that wasn't true. She'd done good since then. She'd been a hero! She'd…she'd…she knew she'd done something that had changed lives! What was it again?! The mirror. It was messing with her mind, making her see things she didn't want to see! That must have been it's trick! That was why it was covered up. This wasn't her…was it?

She didn't know! She hoped it wasn't. She didn't want it to be!

"Please!" She begged stepping closer despite the fact that she wanted nothing more than to back away as fast as possible. "Please stop!"

"Everyone sees you for what you really are Belle," she told herself. "A pathetic coward!" she spat with disgust. No! No it wasn't true! She could be a hero! She could, she just needed the opportunity-

"Why do you think the Dark One married you?" she asked herself. The answer to that was there, in her mind. He'd married her because he loved her and wanted to spend an eternity with her. That was easy enough to remember…but that voice was weak, small next to her own. The mirrors? "You think it was love?" she questioned herself. "He needed someone weak. Someone he could manipulate."

No! No that wasn't true! The old Rumple would have but her husband? He wouldn't. He didn't and she had proof. "That's not true, he loves me!" she insisted, holding the dagger out showing it to herself. "He gave me this!"

She laughed. "You  _truly_ believe that's real?" she questioned as if she'd been stupid this entire time, like she was the center of a giant joke she hadn't caught onto yet. The dagger. An accusation. A revelation. No. She didn't believe it was real. If she believed it was real she would have worried day and night about its protection. If she believed it was real she would have summoned him first thing this morning instead of wandering around looking for him. If she believed it was real, truly believed that it was real she would have told him the truth because he'd been entirely truthful and trust worthy with her. "Deep down…you know what kind of beast you're dealing with."

She felt her arm slacken at the realization. Yes. A beast. She'd forgotten, that was easy to do sometimes when he only ever put on his best face around her but leopards couldn't change their spots. Underneath his false façade, his sweet words, his tender gestures…he manipulated her. Again! She'd feared that from the beginning, since he admitted that he could read her mind, her expressions…

There was a noise behind her, someone calling her name but…but she hadn't called for herself had she? And she couldn't touch herself on the back, or speak in her own ear? Could she?

"If you're so sure his intentions are good..." she dared over his shoulder, "be brave and prove it!" Prove it? But how could she…she had the dagger. If she really wanted to know she just had to-

He was there! Suddenly in front of her, right where she'd been! What had he done to her?! "Belle," she held up her knife, her only form of defensive against his terrible unescapable nature. No. She wanted him gone! She wanted herself back! He'd never make a fool out of her again! She wanted-

"Look at me!" the beast urged. "Don't look in the mirror! Look at me! We have to leave!" Because he wanted to keep her tied down and hidden! Locked away! Weak! No more!

She reached forward quickly, swinging the blade as hard as she possibly could. She nicked skin but it just wasn't good enough! Not for what he'd done to her! Then, before she could rear back and take aim again to save herself and Storybrooke like she should have when he gave the thing to her he lunged. He had her around her back, his hand grasped her wrist and held it down away from their bodies as she struggled to fight him off.

"Let me go!" she commanded.

"You don't know what you're doing!" he lied.

"NO!" she cried. She did know what she was doing. For once in her life she knew exactly what she was doing and she had to do it right now before…

Suddenly the white world disappeared around her in a cloud of red fog.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved writing this chapter. Yeah, I know that in the midst of this crazy and tragic episode it sounds stupid but I really had fun with this! I had fun with slowly transforming Belle into the girl she was talking to in the mirror. She had some genius acting there and it was so much fun to write!
> 
> Thank you MelyndaR for your comments on the last chapter. I hope that you like this one much better than the last few. This scene isn't nearly as damning as the last few! Peace and Happy Reading!


	35. Five Words

OFF! She wanted his hands off of her and she wanted him and his dark magic as far as they could be! She wanted him gone and she wanted to run!

"Just let me go!" she commanded. She barely noticed the fog disappear around her and change into ugly brown and gold. The shop. He'd defied her and brought her back to the shop because she had a fake! He'd trap her here forever if she didn't break through! "Let me go!"

"We're back in the shop!" he told her.

"No!" she didn't care it didn't change anything…did it?

"You're back in the shop."

"No! No!"

"It's okay," he cooed, and instead of tightening his grasp on her arm, his grip eased. He was…letting her go? "It's okay," he repeated. No. No, it wasn't. She could see it in his eyes he was panicked, worried! No. He…he wasn't worried about her. He was worried about the dagger! About what she'd discovered, what she'd told herself…the mirror…the cave. Warm air brushed against her numbed skin, but…

Her mind felt like it was suddenly doing summersaults. She was so dizzy suddenly. What did she have to say to him? "No, you were outside the cave," she reminded him. "I commanded that you wait there!"

"You commanded that I keep watch," he corrected angrily. "I sensed she was coming back, I came to find you and I'm glad I did!" he gave a quick tug on her arm, something she was supposed to take note of. It was strange how slowly her mind was working, how tired she suddenly felt. He was trying to tell her something, trying to point something out to her…

The dagger. It was there in her hand, held so tight she couldn't feel her fingers and her knuckles were white! The memories were there in her head, hazy but still there all the same. The dagger. She held it. And she'd used it against him like Zelena had. Worse. She'd  _used_ it against him! She'd…

Her eyes were drawn to it; an ugly red mark there on his neck with thick blood welling up and beading there all because…all because she hadn't heeded his warning about mirrors, because she'd lied to him, kept the truth from him, because she'd let a cursed mirror actually convince her that he was…a beast.

She felt the dagger drop from her hand and couldn't care. She didn't want it, she'd never wanted it! And now it was nothing next to one overwhelming fact. "I hurt you!" she realized. Her legs gave out, she was shaking so bad she wasn't sure that she would ever be able to stand on her own again! The hard wood floor didn't hurt when she hit it. The only pain she felt came from inside. Her heart. It was breaking. All she ever wanted was him and now…now he wouldn't forgive her. The world around her felt like it was crackling and rippling, coming apart at the seams. She'd been so sure he would forgive her and if it was one thing she was sure he would have eventually but now…she wasn't even sure she could forgive herself! How could he?

Her head was spinning and pounding but her heart hurt more and then more when he quickly knelt down next to her on the floor. His touch was gentle, his eyes still concerned as he looked her over. Why was he here? Why hadn't he walked out on her yet? "I'm so sorry Rumple," she whispered quickly. If he was going to go, if he was going to leave she had to let him know how much she regretted, more than regretted, everything. He had to know. He had to.

"It's okay," he whispered reaching for her hand. But eyes betrayed her. She couldn't look him in the eye she could only see that horrible cut, the truest sign of betrayal if there ever was one! The more she became herself again the more her instinct to care for him, to tend the injury came back. How could she have ever given it to him! She'd hurt him in every way possible! It wasn't okay. It really wasn't and he deserved to know!

"When I…when I found that mirror…something came over me, like a-like a spell!" she explained poorly. "And it-and it spoke to me, made me believe all these horrible things and…it said to me that…the dagger you gave me is fake!" she admitted. She hated the glance that she risked up at him, deep into his eyes because it wasn't what she wanted it to be. She was checking for signs of guilt, for fear, and she hated it. She felt like her mind was getting clearer by the second but the mirror surely must have still held her captive. But it wasn't true. None of it had been because when she looked up at him it wasn't guilt or fear that she saw…it was sympathy. There was concern in his eyes, not anger!

"I can assure you," he whispered glancing over at the cursed object for a moment before reaching back for her and tightening his grasp on her shoulder, "that nothing that mirror told you is true! It was imbued with the darkest of magic, I know you would never wrong me!" No. No, she didn't deserve that. His explanation, the tender way he caressed her cheek, even the way he was looking her over right now with concern! She didn't deserve anything right now, least of all him or his trust! And why was he lying. She had just hurt him! Just as she had been hurting him all this week only he didn't know that yet. Yet. As much as she feared the words, that had to be corrected immediately.

"I have wronged you," she finally choked out. It was what she should have said days ago, here in this shop when people had first come in inquiring about Anna. "I've kept a terrible secret from you," she admitted. "I'm the reason that Anna's missing," she finally confessed with a deep breath. "I didn't want anyone to know until I can make things right and save Anna, but I couldn't…I failed! And all I managed to do was…abuse the dagger and take advantage of you…my true love!" A pathetic coward indeed. Regina had given her that dagger because she knew she wouldn't use it as Zelena had. He wanted to marry her because he knew that she would never do any of that. They'd been happily married all of one week before she broke nearly all of the promises she'd made to him. What would the years bring for the two of them?

"I…I don't even know if…if I deserve to be with you anymore."

"No, no, no," he muttered reaching forward and holding on to her tighter. After all she had done, all she'd confessed to him, he acted like he was afraid she was about to get up and leave him! "You were only doing what you believed was right." No. It wasn't possible. Even when things were good she was sure it would take time for him to forgive her but…now? After everything she'd just done? This fast?

"You…you forgive me?" she questioned. It wasn't possible. Why would he?

"Of course I forgive you," he whispered. She couldn't help it. She'd been right all week. It felt good, having the truth all out there in the open, having him know everything and still accept her and her imperfections and mistakes! She dissolved into tears, reached out for him and held him close until she was sure he was the one holding her, his arms tight and secure around her back though she still felt that she didn't deserve it.

"Thank you for telling me everything," he whispered.

He was thanking her! She should be the one thanking him! What a strange twist of fate. Deep down, she'd always suspected she'd be the one to say words like that to him, that the darkness would get to him again and he'd do something that he shouldn't. She never would have guessed she would have been the one to cause the first problem in their marriage. "Thank you for understanding!" she whispered back. "I never should have kept a secret from you, especially because I know you'd never keep one from me." Never. He'd never do that. They'd gotten passed silly things like secrets long ago. And she'd been a horrible person, a terrible wife, for letting a mirror convince her so easily that it was possible! Though maybe that had been the trouble all along. It wasn't entirely the mirrors fault. In all honesty, she somehow always thought that he'd be the one to break his vows first. That was a terrible doubt to have just after, and even before, a marriage.

"I love you Rumple," she cried into his shoulder. The words would never truly make up for it, but mistake or not there was no doubt in her mind that she did love him, that she would die if she ever lost him. She already knew what that felt like and she didn't intend to ever do it again. Ever.

"And I love you too," he muttered back to her. Five words she'd heard a hundred times in their life and they made her start to cry all over again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> True story, the five words mentioned in the title of this chapter could actually refer to two different phrases Rumple uses. Can you guess the other one? Fair warning, there will be repercussions from this incident that will extend beyond the 4x06 chapters because I don't think it's realistic for everything to go back to the way it was perfectly and also because in this showdown that Rumple and Belle kind of have I'm not really in anyone's court. I think they both made some big mistakes in their marriage and they are both to blame for certain things and that will last for a while. Ready to see how it plays out? Then on we go!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	36. Confession Before Penance

She honestly wasn't sure how long they sat there on the floor with their arms around each other in a protective bundle. It was long enough for her to stop crying, then begin again, then stop again. It was long enough for her to recognize that his forgiveness wasn't the hardest part of all this. Somehow she'd have to come to forgive herself, and she just wasn't sure she could. Not now, not today, not next week. Maybe someday. Maybe never.

She buried her head against the shoulder of his jacket and held him tighter at that thought, wanting never to let go because deep down she considered this form of comfort an unexpected gift. If the world were a fair place, she'd be back at her apartment, curled in a ball, crying over her lies, her actions, and his rejection. Instead what she had was "Can you stand?"

Could she stand? Probably. Her legs still felt shaky, like jelly actually. The room wasn't spinning anymore but it was still swaying, rocking side to side like she was on a boat. "Maybe," she muttered into his collar. "My head hurts and the room is…moving."

She felt him nod against her, never once letting his grip slacken. Parting from him wasn't an option. They both seemed to recognize that and for once in her life she was happy for his power, for the strength and the healing that his curse allowed him to give himself as he whispered a quick "hold on to me", picked her up off the floor, and carried her into the privacy of the back room. He set her down on the cot, but still they didn't stay apart for long. He found that old blanket that they'd used the day that Elsa had knocked the power out and, with a quick gesture, she understood that she had to take the coat and scarf, her winter attire, off and set them aside so that he could sit there next to her on the cot and allowed him to bundle them up.

There was a point and purpose to it, one that was more than it seemed. The way that he'd arranged them at first was deceptive, making it appear as though he only wanted to warm her up or make sure she didn't go into shock, but the moment her back was pressed against his chest and his arms tightened around her waist she felt it. A cool kiss to her head, light, just through her hair so that she barely felt it. Her mind tingled for a moment and in a matter of seconds all the fog seemed to clear, the swaying in the room stopped, her heartbeat slowed. Down the feeling traveled to the tip of her toes making her legs feel whole and sturdy again.

Magic.

He'd used his own to counter whatever the mirror had done to her and although she'd made it perfectly clear in the past how she felt about using magic for things like that…who was she to condemn him at the moment?

"Tell me what happened," he muttered against her after a moment. "Tell me when you met Anna and what happened between the two of you to give you the idea that you are the reason she's missing." It was a gentle tone, but it was insisting. There wasn't an option in it, not anymore. She couldn't lie to him and she didn't want to. Her stomach still clenched, just as it had all week, but slowly she began to let the story pour out of her. All of it, from the beginning, things about her mother that she couldn't understand why she had waited so long to tell…maybe because she always knew it would lead to Anna. To what had happened.

She told him about her missing memories. She told him about sneaking away to Arendelle and meeting Anna. She told him about the rock trolls and the memory stone the clan leader had given her so she could remember her mothers final moments on earth. Then she told him about their trip back, about how jittery Anna had been, how determined she was to get back as fast as possible. The storm she'd seen. The hat Anna had shown her, the one she meant to fetch today. The moment she fell. Two choices and she'd made the wrong one. Anna had fallen, the Snow Queen had taken her and…

"If I'd reached for her I could have pulled her up!" she concluded her voice cracking against her tears. "Maybe if I'd saved her we would have been able to use that hat as she planned and stopped her…all of this!"

"No," he denied gently. "That hat requires powerful magic to be activated. It's possible the Snow Queen, maybe even Elsa, might have been able to use it but the two of you on a mountain…you wouldn't have had a chance against her."

"You know about the hat?"

"As I do most things," he confirmed.

But…when she'd mentioned it on the mountain… "I thought you said you didn't think it existed. That an object like that sounded too good to be true."

"The stories I've heard of it did sound too good to be true until my wife told me that she'd personally seen it." Yes, now that she thought of it that was a silly question. It was another accusation, another small thought that she'd used to tear herself apart; to tear them apart. How could she still be doing that?! Would those thoughts the mirror gave her be with her for their entire life?!

"Fate has a funny way of fixing things for us. If you and Elsa's sister had confronted the Snow Queen one or both of you might be dead. Now, with this turn of events, you both have the opportunity to live."

"So long as we defeat the Snow Queen and find Anna," she commented.

"We will," he promised with certainty, the grip he had on her hand tightening. She didn't deserve this, none of it. The way he'd forgive her, the way he was holding her, the way he was comforting her, the way he'd already given himself over to helping them solve the problem despite his determination to stay out of it all! She was the luckiest woman on the face of the earth. How could there be any inkling left in her mind that underneath all of this he was hiding a gruesome beast from her.

He'd eased her body and the tightening she felt his arms do at her waist eased her emotionally, but not quite intellectually. After all that had happened she should leave it alone, never ask anything of him again especially not when it came to the Snow Queen, but Anna was still out there. Today might have been quickly coming to a close but this wasn't finished yet.

"What was that?" she asked timidly, her voice only a whisper as she desperately tried to get closer in his embrace. "What did she do to me?"

Behind her he sighed. "If it makes you feel any better she didn't do it with you in mind. Anyone would have fallen prey to that mirror."

It didn't make her feel better, but all the same she still had to know what it was. He said it was imbued with dark magic and if anyone could be swayed because of that maybe they needed to remove that particular item from her as well as the hat! "Why?" she asked again. "What does it do?"

His chest rose and fell with another sigh as one of his hands found her own and laced their fingers together making her heart hurt all over again. Had he really forgotten all that had happened in the last couple of hours this quickly?! Forgiven her so completely that he wanted simply to hold her hand?

"That mirror is part of a terrible spell, created for a King who lost his daughter when she took her own life because she was unloved by those in her kingdom. The King requested a curse that would make his unsympathetic subjects feel his pain. The curse was cast on a mirror, causing it to shatter and rain down on the people but it backfired. The curse didn't have enough dark magic and so instead of spreading throughout the kingdom, it only touched those in the castle. Those effected felt pain, though not necessarily the king's pain.

"It's called the Spell of Shattered Sight because it takes every good thing a person has ever done and shrinks it down until it's as if it was never there at all, then takes a hold of every bad thing, every terrible or deceptive thought, or action, no matter how minuscule and magnifies it so that it is all you are capable of seeing. The strong and weak…those distinctions don't matter under this spell. It's a deadly infection but only if the spell is cast, if the mirror shatters and is allowed to distribute the dark power it carries to others. Until the mirror breaks the only one it poses a danger to is the one gazing into it unprepared to fend off it's magic."

It wasn't much but she felt like he'd said more than he actually had. Enough for her to know, enough for her to hurt and to panic. He'd left certain elements of the story out, purposefully and probably accidentally. He was the one, the one that had created the spell or advised the King on how to do it. Advised, it had to be that he advised because the spell had failed. If he'd created it that wouldn't have happened. He hadn't said it and she wouldn't ask because she knew better at this point but she recognized the ways that he had avoided mentioning the curses creator at all costs.

But the curse, she wasn't even sure he caught the meaning of what he'd said, but it certainly rang loud in her ears. Those things that she'd told herself in that mirror, the things she felt and acted on, they weren't completely to blame on the mirror. They'd been there, inside her the entire time. The mirror had just exploited them. That was disturbing. But not as disturbing as what she'd feared he hadn't arrived at yet. The conclusion of his story.

"What happened to them?" she asked. "The ones that lived by the castle, what happened to them after the spell was cast?"

"Without a counter the spell progressed as it should," he answered emotionlessly. "They tore themselves apart until there were none left, the castle was left abandoned, the king dead with no heirs the Kingdom fell, over time the lands were taken by others, eventually the world forgot about them and the tale became just another fairy tale in this realm as well as ours." She was feeling better, the world was stable again but her stomach was doing flip after flip after flip. To think there had been a time she'd worried about the Snow Queen having a hat! That mirror was a ticking time bomb!

"You think she wants to cast the spell?" she questioned.

"I don't know why else she would have a mirror with the spell infused into it," he answered with a small snort of disbelief, as if it was obvious. "She's strengthened the spell, made it strong enough for a great distance."

A great distance. She sat forward, moved away to look him in the eye and face him once more. "How great a distance?" she clarified.

"As powerful as the dark magic I felt coming off of it was? It could cover a  _great_  distance, Belle," he answered.

She felt her jaw drop as it gaped open at him, suddenly understanding just how "great" the distance could cover, and the reason The Snow Queen had kept the ice wall in place. The town. There would be no escape. "She wants the town to destroy itself. We have to go!" she realized moving out of his arms and off the cot.

"Go?!" he questioned. "You're not well you shouldn't be going anywhere!"

"We have to go back to the cave," she argued quickly reaching for the winter gear she'd taken off. "We have to destroy the mirror, smash it!"

But before she could leave his hand was wrapped around her wrist, stopping her in place. "Belle," his voice reasoned, "it's not that simple. If it was I'd have destroyed it the moment I saw you with it, but as I said destroying it would only release the power."

It couldn't be destroyed. Couldn't be undone? No. No that wasn't it, it wasn't that it couldn't be undone, the mirror just couldn't be destroyed now. The mirror wasn't really the problem, it was the dark curse attached to it. They had to remove it. "How do we take it away?" she asked. "How do we stop the Spell of Shattered Sight?"

"Magic," he answered. "I'm strong enough to undo the spell but it must be done properly and for me to do what I do best I'll need you to do what you do best."

She nodded, understanding completely. "Research." The answer was out there somewhere they just had to work together to get there. But first… "I have to tell them," she told him. "I have to tell them what I told you and what you told me."

"Right this moment?!"

Something in her stomach turned over at his words. She knew that he wanted to stay out of all of this but this was different. If the curse was cast they'd be effected too and…it didn't matter. For them to keep quiet about this was just as bad as walking up to the Snow Queen and volunteering to help her with it. This could destroy the town they couldn't keep it secret! He knew that…didn't he? "They need to know, Rumple. Now. She could cast that spell at any time! We would all be-"

"Yes, yes, I see, but I…I understand," he conceded quickly, with a small fixed nod. There. It was only a simple mix up, she was sure of it. Or…she was sure of it…wasn't she? All he'd needed to see was logic and reason. Right? "I can go with you, if you'd like," he suggested suddenly, "to find Emma and Elsa."

Her heart bled again. More of what she didn't deserve after today. She wanted his comfort, his support. She wanted him to go with her and stand by her side and even tell them for her…but she couldn't have it. She couldn't be the pathetic coward she clearly feared that she was inside. That small thought had ruled her life for too long! "I think…" she took a deep breath, then nodded with determination, she knew what was right. "I think this is something that I need to do…alone."

He gave her another nod and quick, almost disappointed smile. "I understand." He did? Really? He understood when all was said and done?! After everything?! She felt a relieved smile break over her face as she reached out, threw her arms around his neck and buried her head, and her tears, in his chest again. She didn't deserve to have his trust back, at least not like she'd had it this morning before all the chaos had happened. But it appeared that she did any way. "Thank you," she choked. "Thank you for understanding everything."

"I'd be a fool not to," he answered back. She couldn't bring herself to figure out the meaning behind that so as soon as she left his arms she went out into the main room and grabbed her bag, determined to take the car to go see Elsa, but she stopped at the realization of the weight within it.

Somehow, at some point today, he'd made sure the dagger had found it's way back inside it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This scene was just so nice right up until that last little bit there when we realize that things are not nearly as taken care of as I'm sure we would all like them to be. Am I right? I did my best to catch them both up on what was going on in their lives and in the town (because the others certainly don't include them), but I don't know if I was effective enough. Your thoughts?
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	37. Better Safe Than Sorry

With a full heart she left the shop and practically ran over to the library. She had to do this. Now. Before she lost this spark of courage inside of her. This time when she saw Elsa she couldn't let herself be brought down or tongue tied again. This time she had to tell her. But when she finally opened the door to her sanctuary she found it lifeless; empty. She searched the small table, the place that Elsa had used for her research and found a note that she'd found something important and needed to show Emma right away. "Thank you for your help" she'd written in tidy script, ending their relationship prematurely.

She crumpled the paper up in her hand and grabbed her keys. "Don't thank me yet," she muttered locking the library. Their relationship wasn't over. It had really only just begun. She sped through the streets of Storybrooke in her car until she finally arrived at the police station. At first she felt as though she made a good choice, running wouldn't have gotten her here as fast but she felt as though she'd just run a race. Pulling in she could feel her heart pounding beneath her skin, her face felt flushed, and she felt like it was a struggle to keep air in her lungs, to keep herself calm! Maybe this was what she needed. Maybe she needed a little kick to force the words out.

She ran into the police station. There were lights on and she could hear talking but only one of the voices mattered and she eagerly followed after the voice she knew as Elsa. The back room! The one they'd all watched the tape in. "Elsa!" she exclaimed at her discovery.

Much to her displeasure Hook and Emma were there too. She couldn't stand to think of what they'd think of her once they knew. Hook knowing or Emma knowing, she had no idea which would be worse! But she couldn't risk pulling Elsa away to tell her in private. It had to be done now! Besides, once she told Elsa it was only a matter of time before they all knew that she had lied, Elsa would have to tell them anyway, she may as well come clean entirely and save the time that would take for helping Anna, like she should have years ago.

"Yes?" Elsa questioned as she made her way over to her, trying to catch her breath from her short run inside. In her own defense it had been a very busy day!

"I…I'm sorry, I am so so so sorry, that-" she blubbered, reaching out for her hand, afraid she'd pull it away in only a few seconds. Still, the gesture seemed right considering how she'd let her sister go.

"What?" Elsa interrupted looking worried.

She couldn't put it off anymore. It had to be done.

"I…I've been keeping a secret," she admitted. "I know you're sister, Anna," she breathed as Elsa beamed looking not shocked or horrified but…relieved in a way. Excited almost. She wouldn't be when she learned the tale. "She helped me once but when I had a chance to help her…I let her down and…because I did…she was captured by the Snow Queen."

"What?!" she demanded, her jaw clenched, her eyes icy and angry. That was the expression she'd been expecting from the very beginning. But instead of pulling her hands away, as she expected would happen the grasp she had only tightened. "Where did this happen? When?!" she demanded.

"Arendelle," she answered obediently. "Long, long time ago," she explained. But that was no excuse. She should have told her sister what she knew when she first stumbled into her shop. "But…I have no idea where she is now," she informed her sadly, the one thing that had kept her from being honest with everyone in the first place. She'd looked around her lair, tried to find the hat and Anna but…what she'd found had been much worse. And they needed to know that.

"But uh, I'm afraid we have a more pressing concern," she informed her, all of them really. She knew that Elsa there was no concern more pressing than her sister but this just might be. There would be no jubilant reunion if they got Anna back but there was no one left in Storybrooke for her to come home to. "The Snow Queen has a mirror," she told them, glancing over at Emma, hoping she'd understand the dire warning she was about to give, "imbued with terrible magic that can do  _terrible_ things," she shuddered. She would have thought that she was strong…that mirror had taken her down in a matter of seconds and replaced her with suspicion, fear, and hatred. She was weak.

"Mirror?" Hook questioned. "Easy enough let's just go smash it!"

"It's not that simple," she informed him as Rumple had her. If it was that easy to see through or past the thing she would have been able to have the sense to see what it was trying to do and smashed it herself before he'd stumbled onto her but it was…strong. Besides, after what Rumple had told her, smashing it would do more harm than good. "Rumple told me it's part of an awful spell: The Spell of Shattered Sight. If she casts it, its magic will make everyone in Storybrooke turn on one another."

"Bloody hell," Hook breathed glancing at Emma who was looking as though she was taking the news just as seriously as she was presenting it. "The town will destroy itself."

"And there'd be no one left," she clarified. It was bad. Really bad. And the way Emma and Elsa were looking at each other, she'd say they not only believed everything she'd said but understood just how dangerous it all was. Really? After what she'd done everyone was just willing to believe everything that she'd said that easily?!

"Except us..." Emma muttered at the woman, managing to stay on task. Except them? The two of them? What made them so special? Besides the obvious.

"What makes you think that she'd spare you and Elsa?" she questioned.

Emma sighed and reached out for an open book sitting there on the table. "Because of this," she pointed out.

Elsa stared at that book with disgust in her eyes, her nose turned up as if it smelled bad. "She wants it to be just the three of us," she muttered to Emma, who looked up at her with wide understanding eyes.

"Her perfect family," she declared.

But the two of them were having a private conversation, one coded so that she couldn't understand. "I'm sorry I don't understand, what are you talking about?" she muttered looking down at the book. Heraldry. Whether or not she'd told the truth Elsa had discovered it for herself just as she'd hoped.

"The Snow Queen's name is Ingrid," Elsa explained to her looking at the book, pointing to the picture. "And it turns out she's my aunt, but not my only one! My mother had two sisters I didn't know about! Ingrid, the Snow Queen, but also a middle sister named Helga, before my mother Gerda. I had no idea they even existed until I found this. She never mentioned them!"

"That might not be her fault," she muttered. The books, the ones that she'd only just barely uncovered before...well, before her emotions had gotten the best of her. She already knew the Snow Queen's name and the names of her sisters. She'd just forgotten until now. But now that she remembered, she wished she'd just been honest with Elsa earlier and stuck to doing what she knew best and read those books with her. So much of this could have been avoided if she hadn't tried to be a hero all over again. Still...better late than never.

"There are books in the library," she finally admitted, "two in particular, they have large chunks of Arendelle history missing from the time that your mother…and her sisters, would have been growing up. I've been working on restoring them but I can't tell who took the words from them in the first place. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier today."

Elsa offered her an unsure smirk, one that told her she was upset but there were more important things to be upset about than something that had been corrected. "You're telling us now," she muttered, reaching out for her hand. Right. She was telling them now. That was what mattered. But there was something else, something she should have offered days ago when Elsa had first come to her and she'd chosen to keep her mouth shut about what had happened. She hadn't known it but she'd been afraid then. Not of them. But of Anna, what she'd say and what she'd do…but she wasn't now. The truth was already out there, nothing that her friend could say, not even the horrible truth, could change that.

"Listen," she sighed, "there…there might be another way, a way to help find Anna."

"Wait…you can find her sister?" Emma blanched.

She nodded trying to keep the guilt she felt off her face. "With her necklace, the one you found in the shop. If it belonged to her I can track her with-"

"A locator spell," Hook finished sadly for her. She'd nearly forgotten that he'd been in the room with her and Ariel when she used it last. "I'm afraid your books will do us more good than that, love," he sighed with arrogance she couldn't understand.

"Why?" she demanded.

"The necklace," Elsa sighed, she looked as though every ounce of joy and hope had suddenly drained from her face, "I lost it at the ice wall. I dropped it and…it's all I had of hers." Her heart twisted again. No. Telling hadn't fixed everything. She had to live with the guilt of knowing that her actions had removed Anna from Elsa's care. The only difference was that now they knew it too. "But…maybe what you found in the books…maybe there is some reason in there why all this happened, why Ingrid is missing, why no one knew about her. Why she wanted my sister!"

"I won't know if there is any reason someone wanted their memories gone until I finish restoring and read it all," she informed her.

"I don't know if 'why' matters," Emma muttered. "I think what matters most is what she's planning on doing with the mirror and Elsa and I."

"Right," she muttered. "What do you think she's planning?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Hook questioned. "She wants to replace her two younger sisters with Emma and Elsa. It's all right there in the scroll."

"Scroll?"

Emma nodded and reached out for a scroll sitting on the desk. "We found her ice cream truck. Inside it there was a bunch of information on me, from when I was younger in foster care, but we also found this scroll. It's a prophecy. Elsa says it's in some crazy language or other but it says that I'm the savior. It also says I'm destined to be her sister and I don't think we're talking about soul sisters here."

"So…she wants to replace the two she lost…with the two of you?" she questioned reaching out and taking the scroll from Emma. Runic. She knew the language. Not fluently but enough to translate.

"Out of everyone in this town we're the two strongest," Elsa reasoned. "Females that is. We're also the only two with our memories missing. There's a reason for that."

Yes, there was. There always was a reason for missing memories in this town. The question was…what was the reason this time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I did alright with the extension in this chapter. Surprisingly enough I feel like I actually did okay with Emma and with Hook despite them being my...well...for lack of a better term "problem children". I'm just not convinced I have their character down. Elsa on the other hand I feel pretty confident in. I don't know why, it makes little sense to me why the character that has been on the show the longest would be the most difficult for me to pin down but it's the truth. Elsa I found to be rather easy in a strange turn of events. Anna...well I guess we've got to wait for that until the winter hiatus when the prequel gets released!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	38. The Strangeness of Uncomfortable Nights

There was something missing, something still to be learned. What was it?! They'd stared at that scroll for a long time after Emma told her about it. Elsa translated the ruins as best as she could and answered another question for them. This was how she'd gotten to Storybrooke. The scroll, the words, there was something magical about them. A certain phrase toward the end directed the reader to a small wooded area that seemed uninhabited, but it was much more than that. "What is hidden lies in plain sight, for the moment you finish reading this line, the unseen will become visible." It was a key. A spell of some sort to get into Storybrooke the "place the Savior was destined to return" as the prophecy put it. How the Snow Queen, Ingrid, had gotten it was a complete mystery, but that wasn't the only one.

As soon as they'd made the discovery she'd gone back to the library, promising the others that she'd continue her research on Ingrid. But they'd all agreed that it would only get a night of research because it was more or less satisfying a curiosity. The mirror was the real thing they needed to know about. But since she hadn't found many books missing information, she figured there was no harm in going over what they had to offer first, before turning her attention to the mirror and The Spell of Shattered Sight.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much to find. It was only the books that had originally belonged to Arendelle that were missing the information, those from The Enchanted Forest appeared untouched which was why the heraldry books had worked. But those books only ever briefly touched on the royal family if at all! Some of them were so old they'd been written before Elsa's great grandmother had taken the throne. And when she finally sat down with the books from Arendelle and the special powder that she'd created to return the information for them, she realized there was little to find.

She finished dusting the books and set the powder aside as she waited for the final sentences to return and read. The first book, the one that was missing three pages of ink, laid the ground work. Queen Sonja and King Harald, Elsa's grandparents, they'd had three beautiful daughters: Ingrid, Helga, and Gerda. The eldest was Ingrid and she was considered humble. She frequently declined trips to foreign countries and invitations to balls in favor of studying. However, according to the book, though few ever saw her, she was a fine choice for a future Queen. As were the other two. Raised and trained in the same arts and skills Ingrid was, it was believed the girls, when they finally came of age, would enter into marriages that would suite other Kingdoms, giving them strong skilled leaders just as Arendelle would receive. She shivered at that fact, remembering that back then all this meant was that the two girls would be offered up to the highest bidder, married, forced to have children…

Would those scars ever heal for her? Was it her imagination, or did they only seem to get worse every morning she woke up and lived a life of true happiness, one she'd been able to find and make for herself?

She swallowed deeply and moved on to the next book. The second book she looked over, the one that had been missing bits and pieces of sentences was much more interesting if only because it gave her gibberish! It had all the same information the original had, a little more even. In this book the three girls were grown. The author was looking to the future, even identifying a couple of suitors for the middle sister when all of a sudden it just stopped! It was like the author had a change of mind half way through the epoch. The bits and pieces that hadn't been taken away…it was as if whatever magic was responsible for removing the words had simply been trying to write around what was already there. What started with  _"Queen Sonja gave birth to…a girl…they called their…child Gerda….Gerda…grew in wisdom and strength and…the subject of many fine suitors that attempted to steal…hearts…"_  under the influence of the dust quickly became:

_"Queen Sonja gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, their first child and heir to the Arendelle throne Ingrid. A couple of years later they were given their second child, Helga. Finally, after a few more years had passed they welcomed another child into the world, also a girl, and they called their youngest child Gerda."_

On and on the information filled out until nearly the end of the book.  _"Though Ingrid is expected to take the throne, both Helga and Gerda are expected to follow in her footsteps in other kingdoms. They shall both-_

_"Finally the Princess found the love that she had been waiting for and married quickly with the blessings of her parents. King Harald died six months after the wedding from poisoning, Queen Sonja followed soon after, many believe she died of a broken heart. But from the shattered remains of heart break Arendelle managed to pick up the pieces because of their courageous Prince and Princess. As is custom, their daughter, the only heir to the Arendelle throne Gerda and her husband ascended to the throne bearing the weight of every heavy heart in the kingdom. Only a year later they gave birth to the next Arendelle heir, a girl, named Elsa."_

It was perplexing, to say the least! It wasn't out of the ordinary for histories to be written by multiple people, like a journey filled in by multiple authors as others died but…this?! One minute Ingrid and Gerda had been there and they were shining gems, everything that a royal princess should be. And then they were just gone. Gerda was an only child. It was as if they'd never existed.

It was something, but not enough to answer her questions. Only give her more! Despite the strange change of tone in the second account, the books told the tale of a seemingly perfect family. And why wouldn't they? These books were created to make the royal family look perfect! But she was royalty, she knew what lay beyond false facades that historians created. Lies, scandals, secrets. No family was this perfect, which could only mean they'd been hiding something, looking at Ingrid and Elsa's power…she suspected she knew what it was.

"Belle?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin when he called out for her. It took her a moment before she finally managed to pull herself together to address her husband, standing there in the threshold of the reading room. "You scared me. What are you doing here?" she questioned.

"Looking for you," he muttered almost disappointed coming into the room and examining it as if he'd never been here before in his life. "You weren't at the house or the shop…library is always my next best guess."

At the house? Because it was dark. She glanced up at the clock on the wall and nearly gasped to see how late it was, how long she'd been here! And he…he'd come looking for her. After everything that had happened today he'd still come looking for her? "Yes…sorry I…I lost track of the time," she excused, suddenly feeling every bit as awkward and shy as when he'd held her in the shop, just after they'd gotten back. Another side effect of guilt. Was she doomed to feel this strange around him forever? Would it wear off one day? Did she really deserve to have it wear off one day?

"I uh…I talked to Elsa," she commented as he pulled the chair next to her out. "And Emma and Hook," she added, her throat suddenly dry. How was he so comfortable around her this quickly? He shouldn't be! No one could be that forgiving! Could they?

"And what did they tell you?" he asked, suddenly interested in the books she had on the table.

"Between what they know and what we know…we know the Snow Queen's plan. I came back here to do a bit of research on her motivation and I just…"

"Lost track of time, you mentioned that," he provided, absent-mindedly reaching for the scroll. "There's magic in this."

She nodded. "We think it's how The Snow Queen got into Storybrooke," she explained taking it from him and showing him the final lines. "We don't know where she got it or who gave it to her or even if she did it herself but somehow it got her into the town during the curse, before the cloaking spell came down."

"Now how did she manage that..." he muttered distantly enough for her to know that he was just pondering it himself and didn't really expect her to answer. He was thinking of something, maybe remembering something or-

Suddenly he set the scroll down and reached over her, snatching the bowl of dust up with one hand. Whatever he found so fascinating about the scroll would have to wait. His curiosity had found something else to explore. He looked it over for a second, smelled it quickly, then set it back in place for her. "Granite, unicorn hair, compass arrow, and a bit of my own magic," he stated, rattling off everything she'd used for it as if he was reading a shopping list. "Ingredients to reveal what has been hidden from sight. Where on earth did you get something like that?"

"Your black bag…" she answered timidly. She'd done it because she didn't want to ask him for help. But now that they were being honest with one another, he may as well know exactly what she'd learned while Zelena had been gone. "I'm not magical but I can use things that are. I learned while you were…away. It's why I had all those books in your shop. Which also reminds me that you might want to check it. I used certain potions and ingredients over the last few weeks and I don't know where or how to get more. Unicorn horn, rose petals, locator potion, entrapment potion…I think I gave the freezing potion back, but I'll check later."

"I wish you wouldn't," he stated emotionlessly looking over her books, "something like that might actually come in handy for you, though I'll admit that I don't necessary like that you're dabbling in magic this powerful without assistance."

Yes. Part of her expected that too. She supposed that she could and probably should tell him how Regina had helped her along when they were in the Enchanted Forest, but after today maybe now wasn't the best time for that. She already had done too much without him for her own comfort. "It's just little things," she excused. "I know more than I am actually capable of doing."

He was quiet for a moment, just sat there looking at the books on the table and that bowl of dust, with the brush in her hand. "You are…quite remarkable. Sometimes it astounds me just how much you take in."

She felt her stomach flip over again. "How can you say that after today?" she asked him, her voice nearly breaking on her emotions. "After everything I did, then after hours of searching through these books and finding next to nothing-"

"You are finding next to nothing because you are exhausted," he explained, reaching over and taking her hand in his own. "Today…today took a toll. You need to rest now."

No. No, she couldn't rest. She'd given herself one night to find answers, to find a motive for the Snow Queen wanting Emma and Elsa. She had riddles, history, puzzle pieces, but nothing was complete. If she slept now… "I don't want to rest," she insisted.

"I do," he responded quickly. One of his hands was suddenly cupped against her cheek, turning her away from the table and away from her work. "I can't sleep unless you're with me, we've been over that." They had. Over and over again they'd gone over that. They might be able to sleep without each other but it was never restful, never peaceful. If he really wanted restful sleep she had to leave with him. She glanced over at him, knowing that he didn't really need sleep because he rarely did, it was mostly for her benefit. But…Anna.

He sighed next to her, tucked her loosening hair behind her ear, and moved a thumb tenderly over her cheek. What was worse? Lying to him? Or complete forgiveness? "It's late," he whispered. "Maybe instead of going back to the house tonight we stay in the upstairs apartment. I think we both still have some clothes and belongings here. That'll do for the night and get you back down here first thing in the morning without much difficulty."

She could leave first thing in the morning and walk to work in three seconds. It worked for her. She liked the idea of it and so she gave in. She left her things on the table as they were. He locked the library door and together they climbed up the stairs to the apartment no one had lived in since they'd arrived back in Storybrooke. The sheets to the bed were still clean, still fresh, but the easy way that he stood over his own side and took off his tie made that wave of guilt crash over her. He really wanted to do this? Go to bed as they had last night? Just like today never happened?! She wasn't sure that she was that forgiving!

"I uh…I could sleep on the couch…if you preferred," she offered awkwardly.

He glanced up at her as he pulled his tie away and reached down to turn down the bed with a single yank. "Now you're being ridiculous," he muttered. There was irritation in his face. He really did want her to stop bringing this up. She tried. Truly she did. She tried as she changed into one of her night gowns, as she brushed her teeth, and pulled down her hair...but she just couldn't! The moment she laid down next to him in bed and allowed herself to be swallowed up in his embrace, just like always, just as if nothing had ever happened between the two of them, she felt the guilt rise up into her chest once more. She couldn't just sweep it all under a rug and pretend it hadn't happened like he wanted to! It had happened. And it had been bad and terrible and…

"Rumple…I do love you," she swore suddenly, her voice breaking and tears coming to her eyes. "I love you so much!"

"As I'll love you always, my Belle," he promised, hugging her tighter to him as she continued to cry away the events of today made worse by words she couldn't let herself accept. "Always."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so clearly there are still problems between them, some imagined, some made worse by imagination, but given his history I also don't think Rumple would like the realization of discovering just how acquainted with magic she'd become in his absence. I think he would be fine with the understanding that she was just doing research and reading books but the moment she starts using spells and his magic to do more than just read, I think he'd be uncomfortable with that. He knows magic always comes with a price and the way his mind works I think that he would fear the price above all, not to mention the fact that he would worry she didn't fully understand what he was doing. It just seemed in character for him. At least to me.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	39. Drowning and Burning

"Belle! Belle what's wrong?!" she awoke with a violent jerk, recognized his voice full of worry and instantly sat up in the bed and looked around her for the threat he must have been warning her about. But there was nothing and no one in the tiny apartment room that shouldn't be. And…had he awaken her because he thought something was wrong with her?

"What? Nothing! Nothing's wrong," she breathed, seeking him out at her side, finding him propped up on his elbow as if he'd woken and had to look over at her. The panic she'd heard in his voice was still there in the lines on his face but quickly softened to confusion as she rubbed her eyes trying to figure out what had happened. "Why? What makes you say-"

"You were asleep?!" he muttered looking simply astounded.

"Yes." What was going on?! "Yes, you woke me, what happened?"

"You…" His confusion changed as he rolled over on his back. She knew the look he got when he wasn't really there with her, when he receded deep back into his mind, when fear was the more prevalent emotion. But what and why on earth would he be afraid when there was nothing in the room beside her and it was too early for anything bad to have happened?!

"Rumple you're worrying me, what's going on?"

"You were asleep," he muttered. "You were asleep and you rolled away. You rolled away from me, out of my arms. You've never done that before. Why…why would you do that?" he breathed as if he was reflecting on it more with himself than actually asking her to explain something she'd had no control of.

It took a moment for the complaint to register because on the surface it seemed like something so ridiculous for him to worry about but there was merit to it she supposed. They'd always slept perfectly entwined with each other. Even when they were angry or upset that was the one thing about them that never changed. If she'd rolled away…he was right, she'd never done that before. "I'm…I'm sure it was nothing," she tried to excuse away, but even she could hear the dissatisfaction with that answer in her own voice. Had what she'd done yesterday damaged the pair of them so much that she'd turned away from him unconsciously? Was that even possible?

She didn't know. But she knew for sure that she couldn't let it happen again. "I'm sorry," she muttered reaching back over and fitting herself where she always belonged, just by his side with her head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to panic you I must have just…" No. She couldn't think of a single excuse to make to justify the action that she believed had always stood as a silent testament to the strength of their union. But she had no idea that it was something he believed too. At least not so strongly to panic him like this. Nothing had ever separated them before. She could go back to sleep with him now. No harm done. Just close her eyes and let him rub her back until she fell back to sleep in the peaceful cradle his arms always offered.

But it was morning. Early morning. Early even by his standards but it was morning just the same. The events of yesterday, as much as she wished it wasn't true, had happened. The Snow Queen was out there, with a horrible mirror, a terrible spell ready to burst free and destroy everyone she loved, as well as turn her against her husband with only a whisper! Anna was still missing. She couldn't go back to sleep.

"I'm sorry I have to go," she whispered regretfully. He gave her a small nod, but said nothing, preferring to stare up at the ceiling eyes wide with shock. All that just because she'd rolled away from him one time? Part of her registered just how sweet it was that he cared about something like that, another part of her felt guilt rise up in her because of it. So before she got out of bed, holding back tears of sorrow she reached up and kissed him, quickly but enough to feel nothing come from it. That had certainly never happened before. "I love you," she muttered, forcing him to stop staring and close his eyes as she rested her forehead against his own. "I love you and if I could I'd spend all day with you right here just to prove it."

"Then do it," he begged quickly. "Stay here. Let the others deal with the Snow Queen today and stay here with me." This was torture. Pushed and pulled every way but never knowing which was the right path. She would have thought this would end after she'd told him about Anna. Now that he knew it almost felt worse. Before, having the secret was like having an affair with someone he didn't know. Now not only did he know the name of the person she was seeing, but she felt like she was flaunting the fact that she leaving him to go see him again. But it wasn't an affair. This was different. She needed to go and take care of this. She supposed it was for a good reason.

"I'm sorry," she repeated. "I can't. I have to go. I have to." And without another word or glance back she moved out of the bed and hurried into the bathroom, all too happy to shut the door behind her because she was certain it wouldn't take much, a look or a touch, for him to summon her back to his side out of sheer guilt and keep her there for the day. She'd be safe. They might both eventually be happy and finish working through what had happened yesterday but…

Onward. She had to keep moving onward, to turn on the shower and get ready to go to work as she never had before. She wanted this over and done. The Snow Queen, The Spell of Shattered Sight, the dark burden of Anna that she'd inadvertently placed on both of their shoulders! At the end of the day all she really wanted to do was spend the day in bed with her husband when he made a request of her like that! But Anna…she'd made a mistake with her. She was paying dearly for it. After it was fixed she imagined that she would continue to pay dearly for it. But the way she saw it in a day or so Anna would be behind them and they'd have the rest of their lives together. The faster she worked to put this behind them then the faster they could go back to being newlyweds and focusing on things like staying in bed all day.

Where she would only roll away from him?

She tried not to think too hard about that.

Eventually she heard small sounds of shuffling out in the bedroom that told her he was up as well and they got ready for work together like they always did but it felt different than it usually was. Neither of them took joy in the small space of intimacy as they normally did. It was just a task. A task to be done poorly in this little apartment as opposed to at home. That much was obvious as he took a shower and between the heat of his water and the heat of her hair dryer she could no longer see her reflection. For once it wasn't entirely unwelcome, not after yesterday. Instead of seeing herself in the mirror, instead of arguing with her own image or focusing on something, it was nice to see just a blur. The water and the heat…

She nearly dropped her drier at the sudden revelation staring her in the face!

She knew how to stop the Snow Queen!

She was out of the apartment faster than she knew she could be, dashing down the stairs and into her library where she could find the answer. Or at least confirm the one she was certain she had! She tied her hair up out of her face as she began going through shelf after shelf of magical books from their land, trying to find the one she needed! She'd been an idiot really, compartmentalized her life by each terrible person they came up against. Not once had she ever considered to blend all the information she'd absorbed together! To use something that she'd learned while trying to stop Zelena to stop Ingrid instead! It was just a passing chapter in a book, one she'd skimmed and moved on because it wasn't relevant in the end, not to Zelena, but now with Ingrid it might just be-

There!

This was it! Elfish! She'd read so much about the elements of magic in the last few weeks she'd nearly forgotten about magical elements! Elemental magic. It was a rare gift. In most people magical ability developed freely. A person had to learn each the elements for spell casting even if in the end they had a tendency to pick one element over the other. Like Regina and her sister Zelena; fire, the representation of purity. They both preferred fire but she'd seen Regina use water before and Zelena use wind or air!

But sometimes a person was born with elemental magic, the ability to only control one of the elements of magic and one alone! Through that element all of their magic was funneled. Snow monsters, ice walls, ice trails, snow palaces…water. Frozen water but water just the same. Why hadn't she seen it before?! Elsa and her aunt were not just average sorceresses like Emma or Regina. They had elemental magic! And fortunately for her, a long time ago, the elves had learned a way to counter elemental magicians when their power was too great for even them to handle!

"Here!" she burst out happily finally finding the page.

_"Magic of Elementals may be among the strongest magic known to man and creature but it has a fatal flaw. Any Elemental can be brought down by the element that is most resistant to their own._

_"Earths are grounded, rooted in the seen and their knowledge of certainty. Wind, something unseen, focused in invisible emotional courage can overcome the power of an Earth. In the same way, one thoughtful and cunning spell from an Earth can overpower the Wind._

_"Fire and Water will forever struggle for dominance. While a vast amount of water may smother a fire, a great blaze has the ability to overpower the water. Water is powered by emotion, by the ebb and flow, give and take of spiritual strength. The solid purity of Fire, if used at the right time can be used to strike down the Water. Though heed this warning. One emotion of good intent may overcome this purity with a single thought. Fire can easily be snuffed out by Water."_

That was just fine with her because the person enacting this spell wouldn't be an Elemental. It would be a sorceress, a powerful one, using the element of fire. This could work! She quickly scanned the book, looking for the spells required to do just that. She found the easiest one that she could, remembering that Emma was new to this world of magic and different languages and was pleased to see that she owned the only item that was needed. A special candle, one meant to channel fire. Technically there was candle for each element, she'd seen them in the shop a hundred times and after writing the translation down on a scrap of paper, folding it up and sticking it inside the book she quickly hurried across the street, unlocked the shop, went into the back room, to the shelf she kept them on only…they were gone. He'd moved them?!

Where on earth?

Safe.

She'd seen him there yesterday when he was doing some things to get the shop ready to open up. She had no idea why he'd move the candles there, but she had to get this to Emma as soon as possible and that was her best guess at the moment! If they weren't there then she'd call him.

Quickly she grabbed for her keys and balancing her book in one hand opened the picture frame with the other, put the key in the lock-

And nearly jumped at the sound of the bell behind her.

"Belle what are you doing?!" he demanded of her. His tone caught her off guard. Anger. This morning he'd been confused, then irritated, had that really grown to anger that fast?

"I uh…I was looking for the element candles," she explained, his gaze making her feel oddly uncomfortable and guilty. But that was…silly, there was no need. This was their shop wasn't it? She had the paperwork that said it was, she shouldn't feel like she'd done something wrong in getting something from it and he shouldn't be looking at her right now like she'd just commit a cardinal sin worse than anything she'd done yesterday. "I need one of them and they weren't in the back so-"

"I moved them," he nearly snapped at her. It made her blood tingle. Oh, they had so much more work to do after yesterday and this morning than she'd thought. But this had to get dealt with first. It was unfair, she knew putting something else between them like this but it was what had to be done. She couldn't let the Snow Queen hurt anyone else!

"I need one," she tried to explain patiently. "Fire. I assumed-"

"It's here," he answered with less bit in his voice, moving behind a counter and opening a drawer. "May I ask why you need it?"

"Emma does," she answered. No more lies, no more games. The first step to fixing this, even in the midst of the problem, was to be honest. "Elemental magic can be stopped by elemental magic." He looked her over skeptically for a moment and she could see the resistance to whatever plan that she'd come up with for it. She wanted to explain more, to make him see, but after yesterday she was jittery. She felt like she couldn't wait one more minute or even the few seconds it would take to explain it. Later. It could be done in full later. For now, Emma needed this candle.

"Trust me?" she asked, holding her hand out for it. "Please?" She knew they'd been through a lot in these last few days but…he could do that, couldn't he? He'd understood yesterday when she'd gone to see Emma and Elsa alone.

Beside her he sighed unhappily and dropped the heavy candle into her hand. "Always," he muttered. But the force of effort that single word took from him, brought tears to her eyes. She didn't have as much trust from him as she'd thought she did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a lot going on in this chapter. I mean, first can we just have a Research!Belle excited jumping up and down clap moment. Research!Belle is totally my favorite part to write. Now the beginning...Belle rolled away, it wasn't anything she planned, she was asleep it happened. But the question is why. I think it really just represents how far they are getting from one another and I think that is what Rumple fears in this chapter. I think that he has convinced himself that he is really doing all of this, working with the Snow Queen and hiding the dagger, for both of them, but I think that moment reminded him of the cost. Belle was distant, Rumple is still distant, Belle took a step closer, Rumple has not and Belle doesn't know it, but the way the two of them are I think it's in character for Rumple to wonder if she senses it somehow and to push away from him for it.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	40. A Determination to Resolve

She knew that things had gone far too well for them after yesterday's events. Initially, after she'd used the dagger, things had seemed just fine, but the more time they'd had to stew over it, for her to roll away from him, to leave him in the morning for her books and Anna, to invade the shop…obviously he wasn't as trusting of her as he'd originally claimed. They'd deal with that. All of it. When this was all over they'd go on a real honeymoon and just spend time together, they'd talk and get everything they needed to say to each other out in the open. But for now there was work to be done.

She caught Emma on the way into the police station. Emma told Elsa to go on in and get started without her while she calmly stood there and explained everything she knew to her. At first she'd seemed eager to know about it but the moment she placed the candle in her hand and told her what she was supposed to do with it her confidence seemed to waver.

"So...it's a candle?" Emma questioned looking at her and the book she'd just handed her with the instructions inside.

"Yes, well…not a candle exactly. The candle is just meant to help you summon the fire element of magic, only fire and nothing else, to help you capture and contain her."

"With a candle?" she questioned again looking at the thing in her hands skeptically before looking at her like she was talking crazy.

"It sounds far-fetched, I know, but I've seen candles do much stranger things than be used to summon something like fire."

Emma looking between her and the candle again, opened her mouth and shook her head. "Maybe I'd better call Regina," she considered. "I've seen her make fire a hundred times over, I'm still learning, and I've never-"

"It has to be you," she insisted pressing the thing closer to her chest. "Elemental magic is focused and made up completely of one thing, every sorcerer or sorceress, even if it looks like they are only using one element are using many of them at once. Regina may look like she's just using fire but she's using wind to throw it, earth to contain it. It's not as pure as it looks. Besides, Elementals are among the strongest of magicians, only a few equally strong magicians are capable of destroying them. Regina is powerful but you're-"

"The Savior, yeah, don't remind me," she sighed almost irritated. "Alright, so…how I am I supposed to use it again?"

She reached out for the book Emma had shoved under elbow. "It's all right here," she explained gently, opening it up and reaching for the translated paper. "I wrote it all down for you. You'll be fine, you just have to believe in yourself, in your magic, in what you can do. I know you can do it, Emma."

Emma sighed. "I wish everyone would stop assuming it's that simple."

"It's not," she smiled. "If it were you wouldn't be the Savior." Clearly she wasn't the only one having self-esteem issues after this week. It wasn't just her and Rumple that needed a honeymoon, everyone needed a vacation from this. But that was only an option that would come later, after everything was well on it's way to becoming fixed. For now she needed Emma to believe this, in her! She needed her to be able to control her magic and make this work so they could get the final piece of the puzzle and begin the process of cleaning up after the Snow Queen.

"Look…" she muttered. "It might be the only way to figure out why she's doing all this, what happened to her sisters!"

"You didn't find anything on them?" Emma asked, almost desperately.

She shook her head. "They're too recent or far away for my books and the few that do mention them have been altered somehow. Even after successfully putting everything back the way it was it's all gibberish because it wasn't written by the family. Ingrid is the one you need to talk to. And with this…you can do that. I know you can!"

"Sure, why not?" she conceded eventually. "I'll practice once or twice until I get the hang of it."

"Good," she smiled. So she wasn't as confident as she had been a couple of days ago when she'd gone off to save her brother from Zelena. No one was these days. And maybe that was something she could work on now that this task had been accomplished.

Her heart was still racing, her body wanted to run back to the library, sit down and start looking into the mirror the Snow Queen had because even after they caught her it couldn't be allowed to just sit there. It was too powerful to risk ever being broken. But her mind rebelled at the thought of going back to the library. There would be time for it, but not now. The pair of them needed to talk. Today. Husband and wife. They needed to discuss what had happened yesterday! She knew there were other things going on but for now she'd done what she could and after she'd chosen work over him for once the least she could do was give them an hour or two to try and sort through some this mess she'd created. Anna, lies, her betrayal, yesterday, and whatever rolling away from him in her sleep really meant! After all, maybe if she'd talked to him before yesterday, then none of it would have happened in the first place.

So she stopped at the small store on her way back from the police station. She picked up a few things for an easy stew he'd liked when they'd been at the castle and planned to make them lunch. It was easy enough and she could always do her research while she was waiting for it. Then after it was done she could go over at lunch and spend some time with him in the shop, just like things had been before she'd opened the library…another lie she would have to admit to.

She could tell him more about Anna, about her mother. She could tell him about how much she still hated carrying the dagger around in her purse. The truth. She could tell him why she'd really opened the library this week, what she'd been working so hard for, after their conversation last night about her and magic that might be something to discuss as well. He wasn't comfortable with her being able to do the little she could do with it but right now she didn't want to give up what she knew or could do either! She felt like it proved growth! Maybe she just needed to sit down with him and explain, tell him more about what she'd learned in the missing year, during the time that he was gone! Maybe then he would understand that she wasn't practicing magic on her own for anything foul it was only when-

She nearly slipped when she unlocked the door and stepped into the library again. And she felt her body go numb when she realized why. Ice. On the floor. With a hard swallow she quickly and quietly set the groceries she'd bought down on the floor beside the circulation desk and looked around. Everything was silent, it didn't appear that anyone was around her but still…she reached inside her bag and let her fingers curl around the handle of the dagger. Then released it, then finally resolved to hold it in her hand again. It was just for protection. He'd want her to summon him for protection!

Her eyes skimmed along the passage that the ice created on the floor. It went to the elevator. It was stupid, she knew it was before he ever had to tell her never to do it again but she couldn't help herself from going over, pressing the buttons she had to in order to open the doors and-

It wouldn't budge. The elevator wasn't on this floor. It was up. Up in the clock tower. And it wasn't coming down.

Sense seemed to kick in at that moment. This wasn't a job for her. She couldn't fix an elevator, she didn't have magic, she couldn't capture the Snow Queen. Discovery was where her job always seemed to begin and end and she had no intention of trying anything that might end up with her dead. Quietly she left the library, just as she'd found it, then stepped out on the street and grabbed for her cell phone.

She called Emma. It rang. And rang. And rang. Her stomach turned over when she heard the voicemail greet her and ask her to leave a message. David. She'd call David next, maybe he could get a hold of her, but on the off chance she'd just gone off to the bathroom and be back in two seconds she opened her mouth as she shielded her eyes against the bright clouds and looked up into the clock tower from the outside. "Emma, I found something in the library," she muttered. "You need to get to the library right away. And you should bring the candle. I think it might be time to use it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really liked the opportunity to have her interact with Emma in a one on one way. Put simply that hasn't happened, pretty much ever, on the the show. So I really reveled in the opportunity to have Belle give Emma the candle in person and tell her that she could use it and that she believed in her. I felt it was essential. Though, with every Emma scene, I also have my doubts. I hope that you'll think I got the character for Emma down with no problem and I hope that you liked the conversation I gave them and that it did seem realistic with everything going on. Emma being doubtful and unsure of her powers seemed to be right on the money with these next few episodes in my opinion.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	41. Tension and Trouble

Was there privacy for them left nowhere in the world?!

The moment she finished leaving a message for Emma she dialed David, who said she should get herself somewhere safe and he'd be right over to check it out. Naturally she'd hurried across the street to the shop, intending to inform Rumple of what had happened only to be greeted not by her husband, but Henry.

She nearly stumbled at the sight of him in a fancy suit, looking like his grandfather. Neal. He'd once told her that he worked in a pawn shop in New York City. He'd told her that he didn't look like much but he cleaned up well. Did that mean a suit? Did that mean that Henry looked like Neal at his age?

"Oh, hi!" he'd greeted her almost cheerfully as he continued to wipe down one of the glass cases. "Grandpa's in the back if you need him."

She had to shake herself to get her mind to move on from the fascinating and unexpected sight before her. Grandpa. Rumple. Yes, of course, Rumple…because it was Rumple's shop. And now that she didn't work here Henry did. And she didn't want to frighten the boy so she couldn't just barge in like she used to.

"Belle?" Rumple's sudden reappearance at the curtained door helped her focus. Just because Henry was here didn't mean she couldn't tell Rumple what was happening. She just had to be careful about it. Though Henry, if he was anything like his father or his grandfather, would be a difficult person to avoid. So she marched around Henry, grabbed her husband's hand and dragged him into the back room. This whole shop used to be theirs. She didn't know that it felt like that anymore, as she pulled him into the back corner as far away from the curtained door as possible and whispered "Can he hear us?"

"If he really wanted to, I'm sure…Belle what's wrong? What's gotten into you?"

"She's there," she muttered feverishly. "The Snow Queen, I think she's in the library."

"Your library?" he questioned his eyes suddenly widened in shock and anger. She nodded her head. Was there any other library in Storybrooke?! "She's there now? You're sure?"

"There was a trail of ice leading to the elevator, it was up in the clock tower…I couldn't get it to come back down for me."

Rage pulsed there on his face for a moment. A nerve in his jaw twitched as his frustration grew. In a way it was nice to see it happen. They weren't so broken that he wasn't over protective. It was a relief to see, but she'd never liked dealing with this side of his nature no matter where they stood. "Stay here, lock the door behind me, keep Henry with you in the back room!"

"Rumple no!" she called grabbing his arm as he tried to move around her. "No, I've already called David. He'll get Emma, she has the candle, she'll trap her."

"I don't need a candle to take care of this Belle," he snapped, his voice rising.

"But we need to let Emma take care of this!" she plead. Over protective as he was, if he went over there he'd kill the Snow Queen and destroy half the library. How was that supposed to save Anna? What if Ingrid was the only one that could safely remove The Spell of Shattered Sight from the mirror? They still needed her and after this morning, what she'd seen in Emma's face...Emma needed to know that she could do this, that she could use her magic just as well as the Snow Queen. "You said yourself you didn't want to get involved and now you don't need to. Emma can do it!"

"The moment she stepped into your library everything changed, Belle. She made it personal!" he spat angrily. "I won't let her risk your life or threaten you like that!"

"No, no, she doesn't know who I am, she never did!" she tried to explain. One brief glance up at her from a cliff didn't tell Ingrid who she was and if she didn't know her and didn't know Rumple then there was nothing personal about it, it was just fate! Chance. Luck! There was only one way up and one way down from that tower, Emma had her cornered. Why she was there was a mystery but as far as she knew it had nothing to do with her or him and Emma could take care of it.

"Then she will know when I get over there and she will learn what happens when she steps over the line of-"

The bell on the shop rang and both of them glanced over to the doorway to their less than private meeting place. "Henry," she breathed before tearing herself away from him and practically running to the door to see David there. She could remember times in her life where too much seemed to happen all at once. For once life felt exactly the opposite. There was a lot of time. And very little that happened in it. Waiting. Lots of waiting. Lots of watching through windows to try and figure out what was going on.

David informed her that Emma was on her way, she was just down the street with Mary Margaret when he'd called her. The moment she showed up in the shop with Elsa in tow Hook had too and after a comment from Rumple about it being a place of business and not a meeting house the four of them left and went across the street. She waited by the window, kept her ears open, stood there with an arm around Henry who had learned what was happening from David and seemed just as worried as she did. Just as worried as Rumple wasn't-

No. Another thought born of that foul mirror. He was just trying to separate himself after she'd forced him into a situation he didn't want to be in. He was just trying to regain his privacy and pride. Being stubborn fell perfectly into that category.

There was no sound. No sighting. No glass shattering, no curse activating, nothing to suggest to any of the passersby she and Henry saw that there was something going on across the street until-

"There!" Henry pointed suddenly. "They're coming out! They've… they've got her! Look Mom's got her! The woman in white! That has to be her! Is it her?"

She felt her breath leave as she saw the woman for the first time in decades. Tall. Light blonde hair. Dressed in all white. And wearing shackles around her wrists as Elsa carried the candle in her hand and Emma led her to the yellow bug David had just moved down the street for her, probably so they could move her as discreetly as possible. It was a distant look but there was no doubt in her mind now. Ingrid, the Snow Queen, Sarah Fischer...they were all Anna's aunt. One of them at least.

"That's her," she mumbled next to Henry.

She expected Emma and Elsa to leave then, to get in the car with the Snow Queen and get to the police station as soon as possible, not difficult given that it was only a couple of blocks down the street…but they didn't. The moment the Snow Queen was secure, sitting in the back seat of the yellow bug prim and proper as if nothing out of the ordinary or terribly dramatic had happened Emma returned to David and Hook. They lingered there for a while. Discussing something. Each one casting wayward glances up to the clock tower before David pointed over his shoulder at the shop. Something…something wasn't right. She could see that. She could see it in their shuffled footsteps. What was it now?

Nothing Henry needed to know or worry about. That much was for sure. So the moment that Emma finally got into her car and drove off, the moment Hook stayed at the library doors and David started ambling over toward them she released the boy. "I uh…I think the fun's over. You better get back to your chores."

"Work, not chores," he corrected quickly. She barely heard him, just marched over to where Rumple was behind the counter, lay a hand against his arm and muttered a quick "I'll call you if I learn something" before offering him a thoughtless kiss and leaving the shop before David could get to the front door.

"What happened?" she asked when they ran into each other.

"Emma got her," he sighed, "with that candle just like you said. But…Emma said you mentioned something about a mirror to her yesterday…a cursed mirror."

She nodded quickly. "The Spell of Shattered Sight," she explained. "It's contained in a mirror she keeps in her lair."

"Well not anymore," David said glancing around the street as if he was worried someone would hear them. "After you found that lair she must have felt like it needed a new home. It's hanging in your clock tower right now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter helps to demonstrate something very important. The reason why Belle was so blind AFTER the mirror incident. I heard a lot of people say after the mirror incident that Belle acted as if nothing had happened, that she had her suspicions and then they disappeared. I don't think they disappeared, I just think that she probably started to second guess them because of the incident. So now, every time something seems odd to her, like Rumple's sudden lack of concern, there in the back of her head she is always going to wonder is that really something that is a problem or is it just the mirror talking? She'll convince herself it's the mirror and she'll forget about it until the next thing comes up. This allows her, really, to realize in 4x11 that everything she was seeing "was correct" as she states.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	42. Magical Loopholes

The mirror. That was why the Snow Queen had been in the clock tower. It might have been personal as Rumple had said, though as far as she knew there was nothing to suggest to the Snow Queen after she and Rumple had left her hideaway that they'd been there, though she knew Dark Magic too well not to know that Ingrid could probably track them down in some way. But she doubted that's what it was. She'd been in the clock tower for the same reason that Pan, disguised as Henry, had been last year. It was the highest place in all of town, the best place for someone to watch their curse take effect. Emma had stopped her just in time. She'd also given them a new task.

The Snow Queen was contained. The mirror was…a ticking time bomb. So much magic. So much dark power! She didn't know if it could hold it all in for an eternity! For now it seemed stable, left alone up there in the clock tower but who knew for how long! And if the mirror broke, if it smashed even accidentally and released its power...it was dangerous as it was.

"Emma wants to know if it can be taken apart," David questioned as she led him and Hook back into her library. She cast a sad glance at the groceries she'd bought over and hour ago, still sitting there in a brown paper bag by the circulation desk. So much for lunch with her husband. Instead of talking they'd fought again. Less than a week and the honeymoon was over. It was disappointing, but she couldn't think of that right now. The mirror. She had to stay focused on the mirror.

"Possibly but not in the way that you're thinking," she answered marching back into her back room and beginning to pull down books. "The mirror is imbued with dark magic, the curse is powerful, complete and attached to that mirror to shatter it would only initiate the curse that she'd planned for all along. If we want to take it apart we need to figure out a way to separate the curse from the mirror."

"Do you know how to do that?"

"I'm…I'm not sure," she stuttered looked through her books, feeling pressure as they stood there looking over her shoulder. She might be able to think of something she already knew but the question was would it be safe! After all if the answer was as simple as removing a curse from an object she and Rumple would have removed his own curse from the dagger long ago!

From her spot at the table she heard her front doors open and footsteps on the floor. She nearly cried from the stress of it all. This was not a good time to have people in the library! She really should have thought her plan through a little more before putting it all in place!

"Elsa's back," David muttered beside her. Elsa? She'd panicked for no reason then. "You stay here and see if you can find anything, we'll figure out what she wants," he muttered. She'd never been happier to hear she was going to be left alone. Research was what she did and she could do it well, even under pressure. But under pressure and the watchful eyes of people that didn't know how to do research...she wasn't sure how much good she could do. The moment David and Hook left the room. It was as if the veil had been lifted.

She stopped panicking, she stopped being worried and did what she did best…only faster.

There was one book in particular, one she'd studied carefully in the castle during the last year because it had to do with the acquisition of dark magic and its uses in curses. Back when she'd been looking for a curse Zelena was preparing to unleash she'd read it over and over until her eyes bled, convinced she was missing something! Of course Zelena hadn't been looking to unleash a curse, but she'd carried the information with her and knew enough to assume that was where they needed to begin.

Draining Dark Magic from an object that it was attached to.

_"Dark magic unnaturally applied to an ordinary object must be maintained in order to keep its power and strength, otherwise over time the magic is depleted away slowly though depending upon the object size and the amount of magic attached to it this process may take decades, centuries even, for it to be complete."_

She shook her head. They may have had that kind of time but it was too much to just wait for the mirror to lose it's power. So she paged ahead to her next idea.

Removing dark magic from an object.

Surprisingly enough removing light magic was easier than dark magic, but she didn't have time to focus on the irony of that suggestion. She just read on, skimmed for what she needed. Yes! It could be done. It was difficult, but the magic could be removed.

_"In ideal situations, sorcerers that have attached dark magic to certain items have the power to remove it easily."_

No. She didn't think Ingrid would volunteer to remove the magic. They needed another way.

_"If the sorcerer responsible for the item does not remove the power themselves then several steps can be taken to remove it. As with any magic, Dark and Light, the death of the original caster would strip away all the magic they ever created. It is the easiest and least complex of all methods for forceful removal."_

Death. No, she doubted Emma would let them do that to the Snow Queen. They'd barely wanted to do it to Pan and Zelena once they'd been captured. There had to be more options.

_"If death proves illusive other options include stripping the original caster of all their magic-"_

No. She already knew how that would end. Removing magic from someone who didn't want to have their magic removed was too complicated and time consuming especially in this world.

_"If the original caster used blood to bind the magic to the object then a knowledgeable blood relative, well versed and mastered in the craft may be able to remove the magic. Great care should be taken to ensure that the relative caster is not overtaken or lost to the darker magic within."_

Finally she felt a small spark of hope. With Elsa around that was a possibility, though one that she didn't particularly care for. If what she was reading was correct, Elsa might be able to do it. But she might not be. The book didn't say what would happen if she failed to remove the magic and she'd rather not risk it with her until she knew for sure. Besides, magic never truly disappeared, simply lived on in other forms, was absorbed into the world around them or a caster. Ideally that would be the original caster, but Elsa…she didn't know what taking on that much dark magic would do to a person even if they were an Elemental. She'd rather that be their last resort.

_"If the magic cannot be removed, if the item is unable to be kept safe, or if the stability of the item and the magic are called into question, perhaps the best alternative is a magical transfer of power from one item to another. Though the magic required for such an act is great, if successful the magic can be stored safely perhaps even indefinitely until the death of the original caster or until magic drains away-"_

Yes! It wasn't perfect but that was the solution they needed at the moment! The mirror was unstable, one crack and The Spell of Shattered Sight would destroy everyone but if they removed the magic from the mirror, if they stored it within an object they could bury or keep safe then the mirror would just be a mirror and they could drop it off the clock tower for all she cared! This was the answer that they needed.

"Hey! Hey, I found-" but when she glanced up at David, Elsa, and Hook she found they were gone. Gone? Gone where? She hadn't heard the library door open or close?

"David?" she called out, picking up the book and holding it close to her. "Elsa?!" No answer. And for good reason. The elevator was missing, just as it had been before when she'd discovered the Snow Queen this morning. Upstairs. They were up in the clock tower. She hated the elevator, hated the way it shook and rattled but the closer she got to the top the more she could hear them and prepared to tell them all that she'd found nothing about the mirror itself or removing dark magic but might have a safe solution until she had more time to find reference this particular curse.

They were there, at the top of the staircase gathered around the mirror, talking about it just as she suspected and she quickly mounted the stairs to join them. "It looks like just a harmless looking glass to me," she heard Elsa inform the others confused.

"I've found nothing to counter act the spell yet," she informed them with a sigh finally reaching the top. But when she closed her book to get to the little bit of good news she had her heart squeezed in her chest with fear. They weren't just gathered around the mirror, they were looking into it! "Hey!" she cried, reaching out for Hook's arm and pulling him away from the terrible thing. "Do  _not_ look in that thing," she warned them, "it'll make you see the worst in yourself!" And she imagined that the pirate, above all of them, could probably be swayed faster than she could, and probably do more damage. They really should discuss the little she'd found downstairs, away from-

"It must be broken," Hook interrupted looking back at it defiantly, "I've been staring at it all day and I think I'm even more devilishly handsome and charming than usual." He looked back at her. His gaze wasn't fixed on the thing as her own had been. But…but that wasn't possible! He shouldn't be able to look at her! His eyes should be glued to the mirror. Unless…

Her stomach turned over as she risked a glance. No whispers. No one calling her name. With a small and timid step forward she stood before it as she had yesterday only…only it was just her. The real her. Flaws and all. Her reflection didn't talk back to her, she still respected everyone in this tower, still loved Rumpelstiltskin. She examined it a bit closer. It looked the same, but it just didn't feel the same, which could only mean…

"Ah…this…this isn't the same mirror," she informed them confidently. Apparently it didn't matter what she had or hadn't found one way or another because it was useless. The real mirror must still be back in her lair. So why was this here? And why was the Snow Queen-

"Why would the Snow Queen risk coming all the way out here to plant a fake mirror?" Elsa questioned for her. She had no answer for her. Why Ingrid did what she did was a complete mystery to her, though it was to her downfall when Emma had-

"Because she wanted to get caught," David breathed behind her suddenly.

In a flash David and Hook tore off down the stairs. Elsa followed and like it was sick twisted game of follow the leader she couldn't help but do the same, even if the meaning behind what she'd done was still sinking in as they rode the elevator down.

The Snow Queen wanted to get caught. She wanted to draw Emma to her and she had. She was at the police station right now with her…alone. "Strong emotion," she mumbled, remembering what she had read earlier.

"What did you say?" Elsa questioned as we rattled down the shaft.

"The candle I gave her isn't fool proof," she explained. "We would have needed another Elemental, a fire, to trap her completely even then," she swallowed and turned her attention to Anna's sister. Did she even know what she was? Did he even know what she could do?! "Water Elementals control their abilities through their emotions. After the heat of the moment has past powerful emotion can allow a water Elemental to overcome the charms of a Fire Elemental…it would be less so if the Water were simply against the element and not the Elemental."

"You're speaking in riddles, love," Hook commented frustrated.

"No, she's not," David managed delivering them safe back to the ground floor. "It means we have to get to Emma. Now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Research!Belle strikes again! And really...isn't she just the smartest one in town! Still love writing for her, still love exploring the magic that the show gives us to work with. And I hope that you found the one solution I came up with a decent enough option for them. I didn't want to solve everything but I did want to give a back door answer to it!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	43. Impending Danger

Fortunately for them the police station was only a short jog from the library. In fact she suspected the only reason Emma had used her car to get there this time was because she had the Snow Queen with her. But with the running that David did, the pace he set for the rest of them, even in her high heeled shoes the four of them were there within seconds.

And they were too late.

The moment they arrived it was plain to see right there on the front doors. Frost. Ice, sparkling in the sunlight, coated the locks on the doors, sealing Emma inside alone with the Snow Queen.

Strong emotions. That was the only way that ice could be there because she was certain that it wasn't Emma that had done it, and that could only mean one thing. Ingrid was already fighting off the fire magic. David ran forward and gave the door a good yank, he cried out for his daughter over and over but even before she ran up to the other door and began tugging with him she knew it was useless. Even through the fire, Elementals were too strong. They'd need-

"Elsa, can you-"

But when she glanced behind her she saw that the woman already had her hands raised, her muscles were already flexed in tension from finger tip to shoulder and she had a stern expression on her face as she concentrated on the doors. Elsa had already begun fighting as hard as she could to melt the frost. But it was easy to see that it wasn't working. There wasn't even a drop of water extracted. "No," Elsa concluded with an exasperated sigh as she dropped her hands back to her sides as if they were led weights. "No, I'm…I'm sorry it's just like the ice wall! I can't take it down, her magic is stronger than mine."

Stronger magic. The Savior could do it, but she was trapped inside, who knew if she was even aware the doors were sealed shut! "Emma!" She turned at the sound of Hook crying out Emma's name but only saw that he was on a cell phone beside Elsa. "Emma it's me. If you get this message you need to listen to me and leave the police station right now!"

"We need to get inside there," David muttered as Hook hung up and dialed again.

Stronger magic. Stronger than Ingrid, stronger than Elsa, stronger than Emma. There was only one other stronger than Emma and easily available at the moment. He wasn't going to be happy about it.

"We need Rumple," she stated turning on her heel. "He can melt it, he said so before!"

"We don't have time to get him, he's got Emma!" David shouted at her. "Don't you have the dagger, can't you just summon him with that?!"

"No!" she snapped a little too harshly at him. She'd left the library with nothing this morning. She didn't like it but the dagger was still in her bag sitting in the apartment. And even if she did have it… "I won't do that," she insisted. She wouldn't do that ever again. "You can come with me and ask him yourself but I won't summon him like some common dog!" And with that she turned and left the station as quickly as possible because David was right, there really was no time to lose.

David called Mary Margaret on the way to the shop, told her what was going on and that while they didn't think they needed her, if she could figure out something to do with Neal then she might want to join them. Hook tried to reach Emma again and again to no avail. And she…she didn't want to think about what she would have done if she had the dagger and they were minutes away from Rumple instead of seconds. But for now the small distance of Main Street worked in their favor and the four of them were able to all too easily make their way back to the shop. David got there first but she followed quickly after him. This request had to come from her. She knew he didn't want to be involved and she knew that there was a lot going on between the two of them at the moment but if she asked he'd help her. No matter where they were at in their relationship they always loved each other and she could always count on him! Wasn't that what she'd learned back at the castle, with those three women?

He scowled when he saw them all back in his shop again. "This kind of procession never bodes well," he sighed unhappily.

No. He really wasn't going to like it, but she had no doubt he'd do it for her. "The Snow Queen iced over the locks at the police station, Emma's trapped inside with her," David explained.

"We need your help, Rumple," she begged from across the glass case. "You must be able to get us in there. Please." He didn't like it. And he was still unhappy with her, the little spat they'd had earlier about letting Emma do it instead of him seemed to come back to haunt her at a horrible time but that wouldn't stop him from helping…would it? "Please," she requested once more.

"How could I turn down the pleas of my beloved wife," he finally answered. It was the words that she wanted, but it wasn't the look or the tone frankly. He really wasn't happy about getting involved in all this again and the way that he looked at every other face in the room before resting on hers…he really wasn't happy with her at the moment either. "After you," he commented. They had a lot to talk about, but she left the shop with the others anyway because at the moment there were others. This wasn't the time to get into what happened yesterday and it wasn't the time to talk about what happened in bed this morning or even when she'd taken the candle and insisted he do nothing. Those were matters for the two of them to discuss and no one else. The only way they'd get the opportunity to do that was if they saved Emma and stopped the Snow Queen. Now she wanted him to help, if only because she just wanted things to go back to the way they were a week ago when they'd really been newlyweds.

"Where's Hook?" They were halfway back to the police station when David stopped them with his sudden observation. Now that he mentioned it they all stopped and realized both Hook and Rumple were missing from the group. She turned around immediately, left the others there and went back to the shop. They were still there, glaring at each other from across the glass case and it made her jaw tighten in anger. If the pair of them didn't have the time to spare a few seconds to talk then Hook and Rumpelstiltskin could discuss their issues with one another at a later time as well!

"Rumple," she muttered opening the door, poking her head in and looking between the two of them. "Are you coming?"

He cast a final glance at Hook, one that she didn't like because she felt like he was trying to tell him something with that look. What on earth where they talking about in here? "Yes, I'm coming right now," he stated confidently, moving around from behind the glass case and leading them out. She took his arm as they moved, it was normal, but given the circumstances she was happy he didn't pull it away from her at the moment. He loved her. She knew that, she could feel it. They just had a lot to discuss after these last few days. Including one new topic.

"What uh, what was all that about?" she questioned as Hook moved around them.

"Oh the pirate was simply reminding me of the importance of rescuing my grandson's mother. Hardly anything worth our delay," he stated. "As well as reminding me that if we're going after the Snow Queen my wife can't be without a proper coat." It was just there, suddenly hanging over her was a tan jacket that she'd never seen before. He had a good point. The cave had been freezing yesterday and it wasn't exactly a new trick for him to make sure she was bundled up but…

Hook glared back at him after the exchange, fire bubbling under his gaze. No. It was just the mirror in her head again. Telling her that he was lying that there was more going on right now between them than their former rivalry. Hook wouldn't let them stop to save Emma for anything now, she knew that. So then it must have been the mirror. Wasn't it?

"Wait!" At the new shout over her shoulder she turned back to the shop to see Henry step out the door. "Where is everyone going? What's happening?"

"Go back inside Henry, you have work to do," Rumple ordered.

"Emma's trapped in the police station with the Snow Queen," Hook muttered over him. "We were just on our way now to free her and be sure everything is going according to her plan."

She had to hand it to the pirate, that was far better than what Rumple had said, and the way they continued their death stare afterwards…maybe it was just the mirror in her head after all.

"I'm coming with you," Henry determined quickly pulling the door shut behind him.

"No, Henry!" Rumple corrected.

"She's my mom," he stated firmly moving around them and over to David. "I'm coming with you."

David was antsy, she could tell he wanted to move again and for good reason. This endeavor had taken far longer than she'd intended for it to. "He'll be fine if you're there," she whispered quickly in his ear as they moved forward toward the police station once more.

But the sigh and the nod that he gave her afterward, it wasn't belief. It was the desire to believe. Oh, they needed to talk about so much! But-

A horrific boom suddenly thundered through the town and made them all pause in their tracks. What was that?

"Emma," David seemed to conclude immediately, before setting off at a run for the police station. She released Rumple and followed after David with the rest of them.

They'd taken too long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there ever was a scene that didn't make sense...this whole bit was just so convoluted and there were so many mistakes. Like, for example, really? Belle is the only one that has Rumple's phone number and in an emergency situation you are going to run down the street to get him instead of call? Had to come up with an answer for that? Then...um where did Belle's coat come from? Also, where did Mary Margaret come from? Despite the fact that she's not in any of these scenes she just magically appears int he next one? So, just to recap, there's a big time sensitive emergency but we take the time to walk down to the store, fetch Rumple, put on a stylish coat, and call Mary Margaret...yeah, seems legit.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	44. Business as Usual

It was a wall. Or rather a lack of a wall. She could see what had made the noise they'd all heard clearly as they rounded the corner for the police station. Everything was just as they'd left it earlier, the car, the building, but the wall…there was a giant hole blown into it. Emma was there, outside, looking at the thing and her hands and…where was the Snow Queen?

"Emma!" David yelled when he saw his daughter. "You're alright!"

"We were so worried!" Mary Margaret called. She didn't know when she'd joined them, maybe when she'd gone back to the shop for Rumple, but she was Neal-free and here now. One more body couldn't hurt especially if they faced off against the Snow Queen.

"Wait!" Emma cried as they neared her.

"Seems you didn't need my help after all," Rumple said behind her, slowly catching up with them. No they didn't need him to rescue Emma but…The Snow Queen. If Emma was here where was she?! And what about the hole in the wall?

"Swan what did that monster do to the sheriff's station?" Hook questioned first.

"The monster who did this was not the Snow Queen it was me," Emma breathed out all at once making her take a step away from her at the unexpected proclamation. Emma? Emma had done this? She supposed that she did look shaken and the way she was retreating from them and looking at her hands…what had happened?!

"What?" David questioned as he and Hook moved forward. Again Emma moved away from them.

"Just keep your distance," she shouted, begged of them as she moved. She glanced at Rumple.

"Can we do anything?" she questioned quietly.

"I don't know if I can control myself, I don't want to hurt anyone," Emma insisted, turning to run as David and Hook took more steps forward.

"You should heed her words," Rumple insisted quickly, answering her question or sparing Emma she didn't know. But a glance at him told her just how worried he was about all of this. Rumpelstiltskin worried…that could never be a good thing.

"Emma, we can help," Elsa called out for her.

"Stay away!" she cried and when Hook made a move for her hand she reared back to pull it away. "Let me go!"

Sparks blasted from the lights around her as their bulbs blew out and too much seemed to happen all at once. There was a bang. The light post wobbled unsteady. And before she could reach forward for Henry or Snow or to pull anyone out of the way, she felt Rumple's hands tug at her waist and pull her tight against him, a hand covered her eyes as she heard the sound of groaning metal, Emma cried "look out" and finally a crash before the world seemed to mute around her for the briefest of seconds. She didn't need to open her eyes to know that he'd cast some sort of temporary protection charm to keep the pair of them and probably Henry safe as well. With any luck Snow and Elsa would have ended up inside the boundary as well but David and Hook…

She glanced up to see what had happened and he loosened his grip on her as the spell faded and the sound returned to normal. "David!" Mary Margaret cried, as she and Henry ran over to David who was huddled there on the ground. It didn't take much for her to figure out what she'd missed. The light post had fallen but...had it hit him? Mary Margaret helped her groaning husband to his feet and Emma stood there, on the other side of the fallen post with Hook. She didn't know which of the two looked more shocked and scared, Emma or Hook.

"Emma!" Mary Margaret chastised, her voice sounding like her daughter was simply a child that had just hit her brother instead of toppled a very large, very dangerous post onto her father. But Emma's look at the moment matched that of a child, or maybe that of a scared teenager. She looked like she was about to dissolve into tears any minute as the reality of what she'd just done slammed into her. "Emma..." Mary Margaret repeated quickly, her tone changing to one of reason but-

It was too late. The damage was done and she could already see Emma recede and make her way toward the safety of her car. "Emma wait! No please!" Mary Margaret cried, Hook reached out to try and grab her as she pled for her daughter to come back but she was already gone. In the car. Driving away.

"We need to go after her," she heard Hook growl.

"No, you should let her go for now!" Rumple corrected quickly as she glanced around feeling utterly confused. She knew what she'd seen, but she was still having a hard time believing it. What had just happened? What exactly had they just seen Emma do?! How had she gone from her confidently taking the Snow Queen away to...this?! She expected some kind of grand magic from Ingrid, but from Emma...

"Let her go? Gold," David sighed stepping over to the pair of them and wincing at the arm Mary Margaret was holding tight, "she's my daughter. Can't you see she's hurting? She needs us right now!"

"She needs to clear her head of her emotions and get a grip on reality," he insisted. "Until she does that anyone who approaches her will be putting their life at risk."

"There is nothing to risk!" David insisted. "This is Emma, she's never done anything like this before!"

"Exactly!" he fought. "She has more power than you realize, more than she's ever learned to control before and she needs to focus on controlling it right now!"

"We can talk her down."

"The only thing you'll do is paint a target on your back and get her more worked up when, not if, you get yourself killed by your daughter!" Finally there was silence from him as he glared back at her husband. There was so much wrong with this situation. She didn't think anything would properly fix it. But at least she could take a step in the right the direction for one situation.

"He's right," she muttered, wrapping her hand back around his arm. It was hard to believe what they'd all just seen and she certainly didn't understand it, but that was no excuse to go poking at it especially when they were dealing with someone like Emma. Whether or not she knew how to control her power was irrelevant, the power was there, and clearly at a time like this it was dangerous. That she was certain of. "Emma's born as one of the most powerful magical users in all the realm but she's barely tapped into the full potential of what she's capable of. She doesn't know how to use it, until she can calm down she's dangerous to all of us."

More silence, though she could tell from the faces falling around her at that moment that her argument had done the trick or at least started to. It was sinking in.

Next to her Rumpelstiltskin gave a resigned sigh and untangled his arm from her own. "Give her the night," he muttered gently stepping forward. His hand glowed a familiar purple and when he waved it over David's arm his wincing stopped. Then with nothing more than a step forward he parted the crowd. With another wave of his hand the lamp post reared back into place with a final groan and the bricks righted themselves, mortar and all. "By morning she'll be rested and hopefully cooled down, someone might be able to try talking to her then, but until morning comes everyone should do as she says and stay away or a broken wrist will be the least of our worries," he concluded, reaching a hand out for her. She took her place by his side again, hoping that at least clearly siding with him in this debate would help the little problem they were having but at the same time wishing there had been something a little more positive to take a stand together on. This wasn't anything she ever wanted to happen to Emma or anyone-

"No."

She wasn't the only one caught off guard by the small argument of refusal. Everyone glanced up at the soft voice that dared to speak the one word against the plan he'd suggested. It was Elsa. Her arms were crossed over her, her shoulders hunched, she looked upset, but still determined. "No," she repeated standing tall and defiant when she realized she had their attention. "I understand your argument," she insisted looking at the pair of them, "but I know better than most that at a time like this she shouldn't be alone. Leaving her by herself risks it getting worse just as much as it risks getting better and…I won't do it. I'm going to look for her and anyone who wants to come with me is welcome to."

"That's unwise," Rumple growled at her.

"Maybe," Elsa answered. "But…I owe it to my sister to go after her."

"We'll split the baby," David muttered quickly, sounding almost happy someone had suggested it. "I'm going with you."

"As am I," Hook concluded.

"Me too," Mary Margaret added.

"No, you're not," David muttered.

Mary Margaret looked shocked. Her eyes practically bulged at that pronouncement. "Neal is fine, I left him with Granny-"

"But it is too dangerous," he insisted glancing over at the pair of them to show that he stood on both sides of the argument. Once a hero always a hero. He saw the logic in what they'd said, understood the danger of it all, but he was still going to get his daughter. But his wife... "We don't want to overwhelm her and there's no telling how long it'll take us to find her. So you should go back to Neal, take him home, get him dinner, and wait for us there. Henry can go back to Gold's and Belle…one way or another we still need to figure out how to take apart the real mirror." She nodded at his pronouncement.

"But what about you?" Mary Margaret argued. "If it's dangerous for me then it's-"

"I have faith in our daughter," he insisted, reaching our clutching her shoulders with a reassuring smile on his face. "She may have hurt me once but she won't do it again. I trust her. And I'm going to go and bring her home to us," he promised. With a gentle kiss to Mary Margaret's forehead, David, Hook, and Elsa took their leave, leaving the rest of them behind to question how to go about business as usual when clearly there was nothing usual about today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Convoluted as this scene was it was tons of fun to write and it's one of my favorites. There are a lot of characters in here that I'm not sure I have their characters right but with this chapter...I don't know I just feel like I got it. Arrogant? Probably. But whenever I'm reading through a chapter like this and forget where the TV show ends and my stuff begins I feel like that's a good sign. What do ya'll think? Did I get this just like I think I did?
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	45. Adventures in Babysitting

And so the waiting began.

At David's insistence Mary Margaret went back to Granny's inn to find and claim little Neal. Henry followed her and Rumple back to the shop, where he promptly announced that it was getting late and he should probably go home. "Straight home," Rumple corrected, then pulled his pocket square out of his own breast pocket. It shimmered with something, magic, before he tucked it into Henry's pocket. "Should you even think about going anywhere today besides right home to your grandparents…I shall know about it." Henry didn't like that. Frankly she didn't like it either but given the circumstances she didn't think that she was in a place to argue with him over his protective instincts. They all needed to be on the lookout. And Henry running off on his own to find Emma...that wouldn't be good for anyone. At least this way he'd have to go first to Mary Margaret, who would hopefully keep an eye on him.

With Henry gone Rumple walked with her over to the library and at her request checked the place from top to bottom and removed the false mirror for her before he set off for the shop again with barely a word to her. It was getting dark. She'd almost hoped that he would have chosen to simply stay in with her rather than go back to the shop, but she supposed if there was any need of him, that was where the group would think to look for him first. Yes, they had a lot to talk about, but there was also work to be done and at a time like this it was important the neither of them forget that.

The Spell of Shattered Sight. She'd told him what she found, about transferring the power of the mirror, but he'd told her it wasn't possible at the moment. He was powerful but not powerful enough to remove as much dark magic as had been coming off of the mirror safely. He would need, at the very least, Emma and Regina and since one of them was currently unreachable in more ways than one, it wasn't even worth going back to try. Besides, the mirror was not weak or unstable because of its power. Quite the opposite. According to him that mirror wouldn't shatter until The Snow Queen found the power to shatter it and even then he was certain that she would wait for an opportune time. When she had whatever it was she was looking for, Emma and Elsa; when they felt like they were sisters. It was still out there, but for now she didn't have to worry about the spell being cast.

Maybe it had a weak link. Maybe there was an answer stored away in a book somewhere! The original story couldn't be the only time this had happened, surely someone had tried it again and someone had done something to stop the surge of the spell! And yet book after book she found nothing. There were a couple of references to the spell, but nearly all of them pointed to it being so terribly evil that it wasn't worth mentioning. If the spell was powerful enough it had to ability to wipe out all of humanity.

"Great…" she muttered closing the book.

The sun went down, she stopped her research, not that she'd gotten far, when he joined her once more in the library, and they planned to spend the night in the upstairs again, at her insistence this time, just in case something happened with Emma. They barely said anything to one another when he came in. Did he know if Emma had been found? No, he didn't. And that was more or less the extent of it.

How had things gotten so much worse today than they had last night? Was it really all because she'd rolled away from him that morning? Because she'd had to get up and get to work rather than hiding with him in the bedroom all day? Or was it because he was finally seeing how well versed she was in his world, in magic. He hadn't really seen her use it until last night with the dust and this morning with the candle. Then again…her insistence to let Emma help one moment then to save Emma in the next couldn't have helped things either. They should talk now, spend at least an hour before bed-

Her phone rang before she could get the first words out of her mouth and late as it was she dove for it and answered hopefully. "Emma?"

"Mary Margaret," the woman on the other end corrected quickly. "Listen, I'm outside the library, can you come down and let me in, I need a favor." At her words she informed Rumple it was only Mary Margaret and she'd be back in a minute then dashed down the stairs to find Mary Margaret with Neal swaddled tight in her arms and a couple of bags, a stroller, and a…what was that thing.

"Did you find Emma?" she asked as she unlocked the door and let her in. "Did she come back?"

"No, we're going back out right now to look and I'm going with them this time. I saw the car was still here and took a lucky guess you were too. Can you watch Neal? I honestly have no idea how long we'll be gone but…I need to be Emma's mother right now and Neal…he'll be safe with you, I know that now."

She hadn't even had the opportunity to nod in acceptance before she placed the baby in her arms but it was alright with her. She understood. Even though she did believe they needed to give Emma a night, she knew Mary Margaret didn't, so she let her go. As far as she was concerned Emma had to take precedence right now and she could trust that while they looked she'd take care of little Neal for her.

She'd never seen Rumpelstiltskin so shocked as when she walked back up to the apartment with the baby in her arms. In the time Mary Margaret had taken from her and she hauled nearly all of the baby stuff up the stairs he had already turned down the bed, removed his jacket, vest, and was working on his tie. "Of all the things I ever expected you to bring home from work I can honestly say I never thought that would be one of them."

"They still can't find Emma," she informed him bouncing the bundle in her arms. "They went out to look for her and I-we get to babysit for the night."

"Fantastic," he muttered unenthusiastically. It was going to be a long night. The unknown bundle Mary Margaret had given her was actually a portable crib but once she'd set it up and set him inside Neal didn't want to sleep, just like last time, the second he woke up to find his mother gone he fussed...loudly. "Give him here," Rumple muttered as one hour slipped into two.

She looked at his outstretched hands skeptically. She knew how he liked to solve problems like this and she didn't care if that thought in her head was the fault of the mirror he wasn't using magic to put this child to sleep no matter how alluring it did sound after today. "No magic," she warned.

He rolled his eyes at her and reached forward to scoop the child out of her arms with or without her permission. "I don't need it," he muttered. "I have had my fair share of putting a crying infant to sleep before I was the Dark One."

The moment he took the child from her he bounced him gently against his chest and offered him a finger for him to hold between his own and suck on as if he did it every day. "There now," he muttered. "That's better." She stared dumbstruck at the scene before her. Neal wasn't asleep, but he was quiet and after only a few more minutes of bouncing and swaying he finally dropped off into sleep as only babies could. The pair of them hurried back to bed after he laid him down in the crib and she was certain that after the day they had they'd both soon join Neal in sleep.

Only they didn't. The moment she lay against his chest she suddenly felt wide awake and from the motion he made against her back all night, the one that was meant to soothe but tonight just felt robotic and obliged, she knew he wasn't asleep either.

They were too tense to sleep, too confused it seemed to talk, too traumatized to want to do anything than lay there in each other's arms more out of habit than comfort.

Yet she must have fallen asleep eventually because in the early morning hours she jerked awake to Neal's harsh screams. She fed him one of the bottles Mary Margaret had packed for her and Rumpelstiltskin wordlessly followed her out of bed and took his shower as she watched the baby. She didn't like this. This silence and tension between them, it worried her far more than it probably should but-

A few moments later he reappeared at her side as she attempted to get the burp from the baby that Mary Margaret had informed her was required. He was showered, dressed and nearly ready, and he quickly grabbed a tea towel and threw it over his shoulder before he reached down and removed her burden from her picking up where she left off. The only difference was that he did a much better job than she did in only half the time.

"How do you do that so fast?" she asked as he settled him into his arms once more and offered another finger for blessed silence.

"Here, I believe the phrase is 'it's like riding a bike'," he informed her, his tone gentler than it had been last night if only by a fraction. "Take your shower," he encouraged. "Get ready for work, he'll go to sleep in a few moments anyway." It was strange to see him with a baby, in her wildest dreams she couldn't picture him holding one before today, allowing himself to be drooled upon or swaying and bouncing the way he was, but now that it was morning and she was somewhat rested she had the common sense to acknowledge how good he was at it. It took her breath away. Was this how he'd been with Baelfire? Was this how he'd be if there was ever time for them to have that child they'd talked about days ago? She beamed as she watched him with the baby then couldn't resist her urge to stand on tip toe and offer him a kiss. "I love you," she muttered.

"I love you too," he confirmed gently. "Go ahead and get ready." Angry or not they were going to be just fine. She knew they would be, they just needed to get passed all this mess. They needed to not be designated babysitters if only for the night. Though if she could she would have stayed there watching him with Neal all day. When she finally got out of the shower and was dressed the apartment was still quiet. Neal had been placed in his crib when he'd fallen asleep and Rumple was putting his suit jacket on, preparing to go and she just didn't want him to. Mostly for selfish reasons. They still needed to talk, his expertise in dealing with the mirror would be more than helpful, and most importantly he had yet to crack the riddle that was baby Neal. Surely he knew more-

"Do you really have to go?" she questioned in a whisper. "What do I do without you when he wakes up?"

"Belle…" he reached out and almost sadly placed his hands against her arms in a reassuring gesture. "Babies sleep through much greater things than people talking," he said in a normal tone. "And when he wakes up you'll know what to do. Trust your instincts." That was the thing, she didn't have any instincts beyond baby talk. She wasn't a parent like he was. "Before I go I'm going to put a stronger protection spell around the library, just in case Emma-"

"No," she argued back, unable to stop whispering. "No, if Emma comes back or anyone needs me they need to be able to get me without a problem. Besides, after yesterday…I don't think Emma will come here for me or her brother."

He didn't like that either. Couldn't she do anything to make him happy anymore?! "Well if that is your wish I won't bother," he conceded unhappily. She could see the way he was holding back his temper, trying to be polite and restrained. Part of her wished he wouldn't. Part of her wished he would just yell so he could get it out and they could actually get somewhere. Given the situation, part of her wished he would yell so he would wake Neal and they could talk about what was going on between them while he put him back to sleep for her. But in the end all he did was ask her to at least stay in the library for the day and keep herself safe, a promise she was all too happy to grant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I know it's a lot of tension and filler and there is not much going on besides an update of what is happening but...come on, I couldn't resist a chapter where Belle AND Rumple got to watch little Neal! In 4x08 when he said that she'd had Neal all night I couldn't stop picturing the two of them together (because we know that they obviously weren't at Mary Margaret's apartment and I really doubt Rumple would leave her alone after Emma freaked out). I had to write this scene. It's always nice to get the little reminder of just how human he really is.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	46. After the Waiting Ends

The library was quiet all day, with the exception of course for Neal's occasional screams and cries for Mary Margaret. She'd called David a couple of times but he never answered. Too busy still looking for Emma she imagined. So when Neal finally fell back to sleep she resorted to doing what she did best and researched on and on throughout the day and had a minor break through!

She'd finally found more than a reference to the Spell of Shattered Sight! She'd found the story, the one Rumple had told her about the King and his daughter. It had become a fairy tale in their world. The Trolden Glass. It was distorted from the tale he'd told her but it was close enough that she could see they were one in the same. That was the first time that the spell was mentioned but not the last. She'd been right it had been cast before. Twice more according to the book, but small pockets of death and destruction were more unconfirmed, but suspected, uses of the spell. But the last time it had been used for used for sure, not speculation or conjecture…that was what she needed.

_"An amateur magician, a peasant woman by the name of Liza, attempted to cast the spell out of revenge when her husband abandoned her to pursue a relationship with a woman of noble blood. The spell however, due to her ignorance of magic, was weak to begin with, effecting only a few of the households around her own, the place she used to cast her curse. However, once the town's people realized what had happened they were able to quarantine those effected for their own safety and for the safety of those around them. Liza was held captive and urged to remove the spell but she refused. A sorcerer from another a neighboring village was called upon to deal with the mess and because of the weakness of the strain and the preemptive strike against the spell taken by those who were unaffected, a cure to the curse was created. This is the only known incidence of The Spell of Shatter Sight being reversed by anyone other than the one that cast it."_

Her mouth dropped open and she turned the page but…nothing. It ended there?! The only known cure to the curse and no one had thought to write it down?! She shook her head in frustration at the author and slammed the book shut…waking Neal in the processes. An hour later she finally got the baby to calm down.

Only just then there was something. Footsteps in the library. Multiple pairs of footsteps ruled out an impromptu attack by the Snow Queen and had her rushing out to the front desk hopping it was Mary Margaret and David, or better yet Emma. "David?" she called, "Mary Margaret?! Oh!" she stopped in her place only to see not David and Mary Margaret, but Robin Hood. Goodness, when was the last time she'd seen him. "Oh, sorry I thought you might have been David," she explained as the woodsmen made his way over to her with a beaming smile and gave her a one armed hug.

"Sorry to disappoint. Well hello there little prince!" he commented happily reaching out to greet Neal with a rub on his head. It was good to have her memories back. To know who Robin Hood was and how they'd gotten along in the Enchanted Forest but she hadn't seen him for days and understandably so given what Ruby had told her was going on with him and Regina…and Marian. So what was he doing here now?

"What uh…what can I do for you? Are you here because of Emma?" she questioned.

"On an errand actually. Listen, I know it's late and I can see you're busy with little Neal here, but I wondered if we might take a look around. I need to do a bit of research for Regina."

We. He wasn't alone? She peered around his big body and saw the last person that she'd ever expected to see in her library again. The man who broke in when he was drunk. He didn't look so drunk now, but still… "You I trust," she admitted. "But him…"

"Yeah, we 'aven' been properly introduced I suppose. Name's Will Scarlet," he stated thrusting his hand out at her. She was happy she was holding Neal. It gave her an excuse not to shake his hand.

"I know your name," she informed him. Emma had told her...when she'd come to pick him up off her floor from among the shattered remains of her window.

"And ye'…I still don' know yours."

She took a step away from him because Lacey recognized that look he had in his eyes with the use of that particular line. " _Mrs_. Gold," she answered quickly.

"Bloody 'ell!" Scarlet exclaimed dropping his hand. "A guy like tha' gets a girl like you…there really is no justice in the world, is there?!"

She opened her mouth to argue but Robin Hood quickly stepped between the two of them again and muttered a reassuring "he's with me. I'll keep him in check, you have my word." She didn't particularly like it, especially not after what he'd done but, she supposed, for Robin Hood, it could be tolerated. Besides, the lights were on in the Pawn Shop across the street, if she needed anything she could call for her husband.

"Is there anything specific you need?" she questioned as Neal began to fuss again. She shifted him in her arms and offered a finger just as Rumple had earlier. Much to her relief it worked.

"No, I can find what we need. There was a time I wasn't one for books but...I had a good teacher back in the Enchanted Forest."

She beamed at that comment, remembering all the time they'd spent in the library looking through books and how she'd taught him to do what she did when it was unsafe for him and Roland to be outside. He was right, he'd be fine on his own and that would allow her some time to continue her own work. "Alright," she dismissed, "I'll be in the back if you need me."

They didn't. Or at least not that she knew of. She did her best to give them their distance as she worked on the mirror problem and not once did they call for her. She kept working, kept on considering what the stories she'd found had left her with. For one, the Snow Queen herself could reverse The Spell of Shattered Sight. Unlikely, but it was good to know. Secondly, there was a cure and she absolutely refused to believe that no one had ever thought to write it down! It had to be here somewhere!

In the dark of the night a bang from outside made her jump in the dark room. It made Neal dissolve into shrieks and tears and she quickly ran out into the library and met Robin and…Regina?!

"Oh…hi," she said looking between her and Robin Hood awkwardly. Was she…blushing?!

"When did you-" but another boom burst through the library and she gathered Neal closer as she looked at the sorceress. "Did you-"

"No, I thought perhaps you-" but another explosion cut Robin off and suddenly she realized that the noise wasn't inside. It was outside. together they scrambled outside, following after the noises they heard over Neal's obvious displeasure and found...fireworks? At least that what they looked like. But…fireworks? She was speechless. What did that mean?

"What do you suppose that means?" Robin questioned aloud for her.

"Well it's not exactly the fourth of July," Regina replied.

Exactly. So who was responsible for this and why. Was that how out of control Emma's magic was or was someone trying to send a message? "Perhaps you two had better get back inside where it's safe," Robin suggested as they stared there in utter confusion watching the spectacular with a screaming baby. "I should go back and check on the camp, unless you wish me to-"

"No, I...should find Henry," Regina stated. "Make sure he's safe." Regina ran off into the night without been bothering with her good-byes. Robin Hood looked at her, torn almost.

"Go. I'll be fine," she insisted already heading for the door. "Hurry up and check on your family."

"Are you sure?" he clarified.

"Positive," she nodded. "I'll lock the door behind me."

It wasn't until she was safely inside the room that she realized she should have gone across the street and stayed in the shop with Rumple, Mary Margaret would have found her just fine there. But for now she was trapped. Helpless to whatever it was that was going on in the world outside. Magic. Certainly it was magic. She knew it when she saw it without a single doubt but she wanted to know who was doing the magic and why? Why fireworks? Emma. She kept coming back to that over and over again. Was her power that out of control suddenly? It had to be! Who else would do this? And why would Emma do it if she had control?! It didn't make sense! But then again, did anything make sense anymore?!

She nearly jumped out of her skin an hour later when someone knocked on the door to the library. She peeked around the corner with Neal huddled in her arms, ready to run if the situation demanded it, and nearly toppled over in shock at the sight of Granny standing outside with a shawl drawn over her shoulders. She hurried to the doors let the woman in.

"Granny!" she exclaimed. "It's not often you drop by."

"Usually don't need to," she commented. "Normally everyone in town comes to me but Mary Margaret called and said that you'd had the little guy for more than a day and I should relieve you. Between you and me I think they're just trying to keep me busy, take my mind off of Ruby."

She nodded as Granny reached over and scooped the child out of her arms without waiting for permission. She supposed that she didn't need it and even if she did Granny got away with much worse in the town, though...guilt seized her as she watched her smile down at the baby cooing in her arms. Her eyes were bright and for a moment it was almost possible to forget that for the first time, possibly in a very long time, she was without her Granddaughter, without any family at all! Granny had been...well, like a grandmother to her ever since she and Ruby had first met! The fact that she hadn't thought to check in after Ruby left...

That was a mistake.

"How are you?" she asked gently. Granny glanced at her over the glasses that sat perched on the end of her nose with her eye-brows raised. That look said it all. Granny was wonderful, but she wasn't like everyone else. Some people reflected their pain outward, the talked about it, cried about it, needed support. Granny absorbed not just her feelings but everyone. She was a tough old broad in the kindest possible way and she didn't get that way by answering questions like "how are you".

"Emma," she corrected quickly. "How...how is Emma? Did she say when you spoke to Mary Margaret? Did they find her?"

"They found her, she confirmed. "They were going to take her and Elsa back home to work on something there so they asked me to get Neal and tell you to go home, get some rest. You look like hell."

She smirked. That would be Granny talking. Mary Margaret would never say something like that. Though she supposed she was probably right. The last couple of days had been...not pleasant. They'd skipped meals, hadn't slept, certainly they hadn't talked! She supposed it was more than possible that showed on her face.

Go home.

Go home to her husband, the man she was supposed to be married to. She sighed. Granny had no idea how complicated that actually was. She was supposed to be married to him…but they weren't exactly doing a great job of that lately. They'd get through it, she knew they would, but for right now…right now a quiet, stress-free, or at least less stressful environment might be exactly what the pair of them needed to work through that problem a bit. Because at the end of the day she didn't want to feel like she was supposed to be married. She wanted to feel happily and blissfully in love with the man she married. But...she had other duties, to her friends.

"Well...are they sure they don't need anything? I've been researching all day, I really think if I kept at it I might be able to have something useful for them by morning."

Granny stared at her again with suspicion, like she saw straight through the mask she'd just put on and...had she put on a mask? "What the hell kind of newly wed would rather stay in the library than go home?"

"It's nothing, it's just the Spell of Shattered Sight is still out there and I have an obligation to help where I can-"

"It's not nothing," Granny corrected. "Being married sometimes means that an obligation to the town needs to be forfeited to an obligation to your husband. If you think you have other things that come first...you're wrong. It's the times that you don't want to go home that you need to go home most of all."

An obligation to the town was less than Rumpelstiltskin? She shook her head at that thought. It was backwards. Wasn't it? She wanted nothing more than time alone with him. Didn't she? "No, of course I  _want_ to go home, I just...I have other things that come first."

"Belle..." Granny shook her head as she swayed the child who stirred and shifted him in her arms without a thought. "It's easy to think that emergencies come first, but emergencies pass. Witches, curses, mirrors...part of being married means understanding that all that will come to an end and at the end of the day you're still married. That's the greatest adventure you'll ever embark on. And if you don't treat it that way, if you don't give it the same priority that you give the emergencies...you'll regret it.

Priorities. Granny was right of course, and she finally was able to understand. Did she want to be a librarian or his wife first? Did she want him to be her husband or a pawnshop owner. The truth was that she was avoiding him, she was putting things between them when they had the perfect opportunity to talk and begin to sort things out. And she didn't know why. She didn't know why she'd been so afraid to talk to him when she thought it was what she wanted, but she knew Granny was right...as she always was. She had to talk with him. So long as no one was banging down her door, she had to go home with her husband. She smiled and hugged Granny, she thanked her for the free advice and promised to make her way down to the diner more now that Ruby was gone and the moment that Granny and Neal were out the door she felt herself beam because for once she knew exactly where she needed to be. So with only a quick stop to grab her bag and the dagger, she turned lights off, locked the doors, and hurried across the street to the pawn shop.

The lights were still on, even if she couldn't see him she knew he was there, in the back, where he always was. "Rumpelstiltskin," she stated as she moved through the threshold.

"Belle, I thought you'd be longer, what are you-" but she didn't wait for an explanation, just dropped her bag, took a few careful strides over to him and wrapped her arms around his body, settling her head against his shoulder where it belonged. He tensed at her touch, nearly flinched at the sudden intimacy they'd forgotten over the last few days, and the action brought tears to her eyes but she was determined to make sure that would never happen again. They were going to fix that tonight, before they got any sleep they were going to make sure this never happened again.

"Belle, what's wrong?" he questioned into her ear when she didn't let go and his arms finally came around her waist. There. That was how they were supposed to be, always. This was fixable, they just needed to work at it.

"Nothing," she smiled, pulling away and swallowing her tears down as she looked at him with a small smile. "They found Emma, and Granny took Neal for me, so…can we go home tonight?" she asked running fingers through his hair and wondering why it had been so long since the last time she did that. "Now? Please?" He still wasn't happy with her. It was written all over his sad face as he examined her expression. But he did still love her. That was there, plain as day, on his face as well. And that was all she really needed.

After a moment he offered her a nod and a defeated sigh. "If that's what you want-"

"What I want is you," she insisted. "Will you take me home?"

He complied to her request without hesitation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been updated to accommodated 5x09. Originally it was Ruby that came and took Neal and had a conversation with Belle, but obviously in her absence I had to change that. I choose Granny because I feel like there are a limited amount of people in the town that Belle could have a conversation with about a topic like this and also be someone that the Charmings would call to collect Neal. I hope that it turned out alright. I wish every Ruby replacement was this easy. Alas, I fear it will not be.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	47. Healing Words

"Finally," he breathed the moment that they stepped over the threshold to their home. It did feel good, she had to admit, to finally be home after two days of…she didn't even know what to call these last two days! Hell maybe. An unending state of quiet purgatory? It didn't matter. It was over now.

"In our own defense we never meant to leave for so long," she commented locking the door behind her. It was true. When she'd left that terrible day that Emma called she had no idea that she would get swept up in all of this so quickly! That she'd need to find the Snow Queen, her history, and no one could have predicted that it would be Emma that would go missing or that she'd have used the dagger on him! She shuddered at the thought and tried not the think about it. They'd stayed at the library out of necessity and now…the necessity was still there, she couldn't deny that. They'd gotten Emma back but the Snow Queen was still loose, Anna was still missing, the mirror was still a threat. No, she supposed that there really wasn't any time to come home. Probably they should have stayed at the library again she should have stayed up late doing research, and she probably would have if…no. She'd done enough research. Now she needed to talk to her husband. The world could have them again in the morning. Granny was right. Tonight she was his wife first, not the librarian.

"We'll have to go back early tomorrow," she warned hanging her coat up and following him up the dark stairs to their bedroom. She hated the silence that stretched between them in the empty house. She felt like the walls were humming with it and she was desperate to talk, to make noise, to...anything! "The mirror is still out there, primed and ready. I'll have to get to the library and continue to look through my books to see if I can figure out the way to-"

"Belle can we just…" he turned almost violently on his heel at the top of the stairs and held a hand up between them, his tone might have been harsh but his eyes weren't. They were desperate, pleading. His face softened as soon as he realized his mistake. "Can we not talk about the Snow Queen, or magic, or even Emma until the sun rises? Please…just for tonight."

She didn't like that. She didn't like it one bit, after all that they'd gone through, all they were still going though he was just going to easily continue to brush this aside, to not get into it unless it was absolutely necessary? That was…

The mirror. Her dislike of that small trait was the mirror talking in her head again. He wasn't saying they could never talk about it, he wasn't saying that he was refusing to help completely, it was just for tonight. And after the last two days she supposed that she owed him that much as she nodded and followed him into their bedroom. Besides, she hadn't brought him here to talk about the mirror or what she had to do tomorrow. That was never her intention! She wanted to talk about them, about whatever this tension between them was. Did he sense it like she did? Didn't he want to address it?

"What do you want to talk about then?" she asked sitting down on the bed with a defeated plop as he sorted through dresser drawers and began peeling off his many layers of Mr. Gold for bed, just as he had the days before. No, she really didn't want this to be a repeat of the last couple of nights. They'd been too terrible.

"Anything," he answered stiffly. "Pick a topic."

Pick a topic. Any topic. She hated to see him so tense. So frustrated. She hated thinking, knowing, that she had something to do with it. She hated how he was trying his hardest to stay away from magic for her sake and yet she'd dragged him back to it kicking and screaming. But how was she suppose to talk about that when he had asked her not to?! "Can we talk then about…about you and…about you and me?" she questioned timidly as he threw old clothes into a hamper and worked to put sleeping clothes on.

"What about us would you like to discuss?" he questioned back without emotion.

Did he really not know? Did he really not sense it in his own tone?! "Well...how about the fact that I don't feel like we're an 'us' at the moment," she pointed out. He stopped dead in his tracks, didn't even finish buttoning the button he'd been working on as she spoke. "I mean...Rumple, we've been tip toeing around each other for the last two days as if something-as if what happened with the dagger, never happened! Don't you feel it?"

After a moment of silence he shook his head and continued his work, buttoning his shirt before going and pulling back the covers to his side of the bed. "I wasn't aware there was anything left to discuss on that matter," he finally muttered.

Her heart fell. Wasn't that her point?! There was more to discuss! She wanted to discuss it, to talk about it, to tell him why she'd done it and what had driven her! She wanted him to know more than the facts about it, more than Anna and her mother. She wanted him to know…just to know…

"I worry that you think I'm perfect sometimes," she blurted out as he finally sat down on his side.

He glanced over at her with the confession, his irritation suddenly drowned out by utter confusion. "Belle, what are you talking about?"

This was good. It was a start. "Belle" wasn't "Sweetheart" but at least he was talking with a decent tone, looking at her with an expectance to answer his question. In fact he almost looked worried about what she'd said. That was right! Even if she hadn't meant to bring it up it was right where she wanted to be! Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. So she took a deep breath, swallowed her pride, and allowed herself to go on. In fact she allowed herself to move forward, away from the foot of the bed to sit closer to him.

"I worry that you think I'm perfect. I worry that you think I can't make mistakes or do something wrong, that I'm flawless. And I worry that I can't always live up to that expectation you have for me and it'll leave you disappointed. I can live with everyone else thinking that about me, Rumple, and I can live with feeling it about myself but you…" she couldn't live with disappointing him. If he didn't believe in her, then who-

"Oh, you're not flawless," he stated with a shake of his head and a small snort of amusement. Genuine amusement. Because he knew she wasn't flawless? Had she been that wrong? "Belle, you aren't perfect and I understand that," he explained. "I don't want you to ever feel like you have to be perfect or flawless for me because I don't expect that of you."

He said it so calmly. Like they were talking about who was going to take the trash out tomorrow or do the dishes. But the acceptance in those words still brought tears to her eyes. She never knew how much she didn't want to be perfect until he told her she wasn't and didn't have to be! He might have been the only person in the world not to expect it of her. "You don't?" she muttered over the lump in her throat.

"No. I don't," he confirmed confidently. "How could I after all we've…Belle, you…" but he shook his head and words seemed to escape him at the moment. And when they failed he reached out and grabbed her hand, he held it secure within his own for a moment but the thrill of the step forward he'd made quickly faded. Her stomach turned over because Rumpelstiltskin rendered speechless could never be a good thing. What had she done? What had she been so unaware of before all this that had tainted her in his eyes?

But then a smile slowly spread across his face as he brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm. "You sleep like no one I've ever met. It takes me minutes to wake you up each morning only to have you fall back into a deep sleep again within seconds and start all over again. When you've made up your mind you are one of if not the most stubborn women I've ever known. You say what's on your mind with very little tact sometimes at the worst possible moment. And I believe I've made it quite clear what I think about your insistence to run into danger for people you hardly know with no regard for your own safety…what happened between us with the dagger and The Snow Queen, even Emma over the last couple of days would be the perfect example of that."

That was…a little easier than she would have liked it to be for him. She didn't want him to think she was perfect but she didn't exactly want him to think she was more work than she was worth either. Though, she did suppose that after the last few days he was probably right. Probably she needed to really prioritize her life a little better, make more room for him than she had after-

"But my darling Belle," he whispered suddenly, silencing every thought and bringing tears to her eyes because she was "Darling" again! "Just because you are not perfect doesn't mean that you are not perfect for me. What you say in the heat of the moment is sometimes exactly what needs said. As much as it worries me each time I admire your heroism and sacrifice for others above all else. A monster like me needs your kind of stubborn determination in order to maintain balance. And you already know how I feel about watching you sleep even through my useless urgings to get you to wake up…it's my favorite part of the day."

She finally felt herself smile at him probably for the first time since that cavern. He liked it. She knew she wasn't wrong about that. He liked to watch her sleep just as he had said and deep down he liked that she slept heavily because it gave him more time to be with her in the mornings. That had all been true. And yet…

"I don't like that you leave the house in the morning without waking me first," she admitted. She felt terrible saying it. Truly she did after all she'd done she was in no position to argue or complain…but for this one thing she felt like it needed to be said. She felt like she might come to regret it if she didn't. She felt like they both might regret it if she didn't.

"I like going to work with you every morning," she explained daring to reach out and run her fingers through his hair before touching his cheek. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been this nervous about touching him. But he didn't pull away or tense at it like he had last time in the shop. That was good. That was moving forward. "I like waking up and seeing your face first thing. I like the time we get to spend together just the two of us even if we are just trying to get ready. I haven't liked that you left me alone to do it by myself and drive into town hours later. I miss having you wake me up, I miss making your coffee in the mornings and the way you make my tea, driving to town with you. I miss kissing you before I get out of bed and the way you look at me after I get out of the shower-"

"I miss looking at you when you get out of the shower," he inserted quickly with a mischievous smirk. She shook her head at him because they both knew that comment wasn't really as he'd made it out to be. He knew what she meant. And after a moment his smirk faded and he offered her a sigh. "It was just business, Sweetheart," he excused. "I don't intend for it to be a daily occurrence."

She sighed heavily and moved a little closer to him. "I know. I just…I just miss us being us. The little things that make us 'us'," she finally concluded. "If we lose 'us' every time things get difficult then I don't know how either of us will ever make it through."

"That won't happen," he whispered harshly reaching forward and pulling her closer so that their foreheads tapped and their hands wove together in a pattern the both knew just under their chins. "One thing is always for certain and that is that you and I will always be together no matter what…I promise you that."

She felt herself smile at the words and allowed herself to take peace and joy away from what they'd just shared. It worked. She felt better. He felt better. A conversation. She knew that was all they needed to have. A sacred space that they could just be Husband and Wife for a few moments instead of the Dark One and the Librarian. If they could get through this so easily, they were going to be fine.

The shyness and timidness she'd had around him the last few days had just evaporated into thin air and his tension with her had dissolved in a matter of seconds and before she knew what had happened they were kissing again. Not the small pecks they'd given each other over the last few days, kisses that had been half-hearted because they had been ignoring the monster growing between the two of them but actual kisses. Breathless, desperate kisses that made her heart pound and her head spin. The kind of kisses that she could get lost in only when they were perfectly found. Only...were they perfectly found?

With that thought she pushed gently against his chest and separated them, leaving him looking confused and maybe even panicked as he searched her face for why she'd stopped them. It was quite simple really. "Will you be here when I wake up?" she questioned looking him over.

He offered her a smirk as he nodded his head. "You have my word," he promised. And so they were found again. There were still issues and problems, but for now...they were at least back where they belonged with each other. And so she leaned forward and let herself kiss him again without hesitation or pause. She let her fingers tangle in the hair that hung down behind his ear and did her best to draw him closer to her, until their individual sides of the bed disappeared and there was truly space enough for two again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to put them back together just one last time before the inevitable. Even here I like to think that you can see a bit of what is coming for Rumple, He is promising to always be with her and keep her safe and I think that he would only use something like this as more justification for what he is doing. Tragic really. This is another scene where I feel like he missed the opportunity. He could have opened up here and while I doubt what they spoke of would have ended this way...I really think if he had told her everything then it wouldn't have ended at the town line.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	48. Better Safe Than Sorry

He kept his promise. The next morning she happily awoke to pressured brushstrokes up and down her spine as he called for his "Sweetheart" to wake up. That was normal. It was right. And she felt better than she had in days. They had needed last night. They needed it to heal and so they had. Of course the only thing she regretted about that was the early hour. But she would take waking up early by his side over sleeping in alone any day. Besides, there was no doubt in her mind that there was work to be done. Ruby had told her that Emma was back but the mirror was still out there somewhere, the Spell of Shattered Sight was just waiting to be cast, and so as much as she wanted to make up for days ago and just insist that they could spend all day here continuing to "heal" she knew they couldn't.

And as a rumble of thunder echoed through the house she realized there was incentive to leave soon. "There's a storm brewing," she pointed out as he held her to his chest. "We should leave before it hits," he sighed deeply next to her, letting her know he regretted that fact just as much as she did but released her.

"As you wish," he muttered. They hurried. They got themselves showered and put together as quickly as they possibly could. It was the strangest thing though. She could hear the thunder as they moved about the house that morning. It did get a bit louder, she supposed, with every roll, but somehow it didn't seem to be getting closer. A slow moving storm perhaps? One that was growing more than it was moving? Naturally. Those were the worst kind. All this town needed to make the week better was to lose power again and-

As he finished dressing upstairs, as she was busy gathering her things together for the trip into town, her eyes fell upon the basement door. Dark magic. The Spell of Shattered Sight. Why hadn't she thought to look for the spell there?! It was where she'd found everything on Zelena! She paused before unlocking the door, listened to make sure he was still up in their room, though in all honesty she didn't know why, then she allowed the knob to cool at her touch and went down into the depths of the protected dark chamber.

She knew the books she needed without giving it much thought, a frightening realization all on its own. Many of the books, the books that weren't basics, the books that were filled only with Dark Magic, were not titled or authored but she knew them by cover alone after she'd combed through each and every one of them weeks ago. No, she couldn't remember reading about the Spell of Shattered Sight, she hadn't read a lot of things that hadn't pertained to that situation, but she knew where to look for them.

A dark blue volume that contained a record of Dark Magic, similar to a history but she wasn't so sure she'd go so far as to call it that.

A small black book with intricate silver pattern on the cover that contained spells, potions, and of course curses that were the product of Dark Magic.

Those would be the two she needed to search through, without a doubt! But…as she went to pull the small black book off the shelf her eyes were drawn to the shelf above it, a shelf that had books with titles and authors willing to claim the works.  _A Theoretical Guide for Magical Cures to Dark Magic._ In the time it took for her to guess where he'd come across strange things like this her mind had already picked out a certain detail she'd forgotten. The book she'd read yesterday the one that told her about other occurrences of The Spell of Shattered Sight, it had said that there was a "cure" for it. She'd dismissed that because she was looking for a way to remove the curse from the mirror all together, to stop it before it ever got that far but…

She pulled the book off the shelf, hoping that she wouldn't have to use it, but knowing that it was always better to be safe rather than sorry.

At the top of the stairs she jumped when she nearly ran into her husband. She would have dropped the books if he hadn't reached out a hand and steadied her and her small load. "Belle, what…what are you doing downstairs?" he questioned looking her over. He almost seemed worried, but…that was explainable. Being in the basement never meant anything good was going on for either of them. Of course he was worried, all that was going on, he should be worried. She was just reading too much into it, letting that horrible mirror get the best of her yet again.

"I'm just grabbing a few books for some more research," she explained, moving around him and finding a bag to set them in. "I've done it before, I'll return them."

"No, I know you've done it before but…Belle that room, those books, aren't meant to be used as library books you can check out and return at your convenience. They're dangerous!"

His words nearly brought her to a standstill. The last time they'd had a conversation about those books, about her removing them from that room he'd told her it was fine, that he trusted her with them. Now he was angry she was using them again?! "They're not all dangerous," she pointed out, turning to face him. "And the last time I used them I was able to help stop Zelena's plan so…are you saying I should only use them when I intend to help you?" she snapped. Snapped! They were fighting again. So soon? Hadn't they just moved passed all this?

"No," he corrected. Corrected everything actually. His posture slumped as he relaxed, his tone became gentler, and he even managed a small smile as he stepped up to her and reached out to touch her arms and shoulders. "No, of course not. I'm merely reminding you that those books are under lock and key for a reason. It's best to look elsewhere for the answers you seek first before resorting to the kind of magic that's inside of them."

She knew what he was saying. She understood why he was saying it. She just didn't like it. It made her feel like it was her that he didn't trust. No, not with the books, he trusted her with that. But with the knowledge inside of them…he didn't trust her with that. Was he really worried that she'd get too caught up in Dark Magic to find her way out again? How could he of all people think something like that?

"It's the first time I've been down there all week, Rumple," she informed him. "I've looked everywhere else and I know what's in these books and the damage it can do, but as long as I've got them in my possession I'm not going to sit around and ignore them, I'm going to use them for the little good they can do. Information is neutral, neither light nor dark, and I promise that is all I intend to use these for today before returning them tonight. Now…can we go back to town? Please? I'd like to figure out how to take that mirror and the curse apart before The Snow Queen decides to cast it."

His jaw clenched. He bit down so hard a muscle she'd never seen in his jaw twitched. Two rolls of thunder echoed ominously in the time they stared at one another, facing off, before he finally nodded, agreeing to let her take them and they left the house in silence.

Curtesy of the oncoming storm, her hair blew as she made her way toward the car and took her place next to him. She stared at the window, at the dark clouds hovering over Storybrooke's Bay, slowly growing as it made its way inch by inch inland. They had a while until it finally hit but she was certain when it did it would be bad. The thunder was already loud, the lightening flashed within the deep grey and purple clouds. More purple than grey she supposed. Still her husband remained silent beside her, oblivious it seemed to the oncoming storm.

Could he feel the one she felt rolling off of her then?

There was more to talk about. In a perfect world they would have covered it all last night but in reality they'd covered a very small piece of what they needed to talk about. His reluctance to help others, understandable for the little things, but irritating for the bigger things was beginning to bother her. Yes, she understood his position, his determination to stay out of everyone else's business but…these last few days it had been his family! Neal's family. Hers. Whether he liked them or not they were family and that made all of this his business. And besides, even if he couldn't see them as family, continued to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that family was black and white and joined by blood, there was a difference between staying out of it and making situations worse by refusing not to help.

Which made her stop to seriously consider…what was in the books at her feet now. She could draw only two conclusions from their little argument before they'd left the house. Either he didn't want her looking in them because he really was worried about what would become of her if she ventured down that road. She rejected that idea. It wasn't just ridiculous it was insulting. She wasn't magical! She knew she wasn't magical, the little she could do with magic came from things that were already magic! Besides, she of all people knew the dangers of Dark Magic. She was married to Dark One! His son was the best friend she'd ever had, she'd seen the effects that Dark Magic had not just on one person but an entire family. The idea that he was worried about her getting in too deep was absurd!

But that left her only with the second conclusion. He didn't want her to look in those books because he knew what she'd find. But that…that was equally ridiculous. He didn't want this spell to be cast, he couldn't! He'd seen what it had done to her and what it would do to Henry…! No. Selfishness was one of those terrible traits he could possess at terrible times but sometimes it wasn't always bad. He shouldn't want The Spell of Shattered Sight to be cast because of what it would do to the two of them! As far as he was concerned the rest of the town could crash and burn but not the two of them.

So if it wasn't one thing and it wasn't the other…why had he over reacted to her being in the basement this morning?

She should say something. They were nearly into town, nearly to the point of the day they'd be separated again and she should do her best to try and break this silence between the two of them and start talking again! That was the only way to fix any of this.

Only, as she opened her mouth to begin talking, to say something to fix this, she noticed something…strange. The storm. The clouds. More purple than grey. More thunder than lightning and the lightning that was there…lightning didn't act like that. Did it? It touched the ground. It jumped from place to place. It was blue and hard! This…this glittered. It glittered. Like fairy dust or unicorns horn or like thousands of shards of glass. Like a mirror.

"Rumple," she muttered, unable to take her eyes off of the sight before her. "The curse…the Spell of Shattered Sight, when it's cast what does it look like?"

"Like any powerful curse," he answered quietly. "You've seen what those look like." She had. The curse to bring them here. Pan's curse. Even the one that he'd cast to bring magic back to Storybrooke, she'd never considered it a curse before but it had looked just like the others. It looked just like the one in front of her.

Better safe than sorry. It was a good thing she'd grabbed that book. The Spell of Shattered Sight…it had been cast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so we are officially into the 4x09 story line, which will move into 4x10 for a chapter because it wasn't like there was a lot of Belle to write for that so...let's all just take a deep breath and we'll get through this. One way or another we will get through to...well...eventually we'll get through to better times for Rumple. Might happen is season 59...but we'll get there eventually.
> 
> Thank you to Askapost and Judymulder for your comments on the last chapter. I'm glad that chapter offered the respite that we needed to get us through these terrible times. Then again...have we ever really had good times? Honestly, what I wouldn't give to have a half season where Rumbelle turns into Snowing and practically gets ignored because there is nothing interesting happening with them. Peace and Happy Reading!


	49. Step By Step

"That would be the Spell of Shattered Sight," he confirmed when she pointed the glittering out to him. "And that means we have a very big problem." No. Not just the two of them. The entire town had a very big problem! Though she had to admit that she never actually expected a mirror of that size to cause a cloud of dust that big! Not to mention building by the minute. "The size was irrelevant," he explained as they finally pulled onto Main Street. "It had enough Dark Magic in it to make a curse like the one you see only tenfold. It's like any other storm. It'll continue to grow and expand until it can't grow and expand anymore and then…well, it won't be water than rains down on Storybrooke tonight."

That was bad. Very, very bad. There were people on the street, walking by with happy smiles and umbrella's hanging from their arms. It was clear they thought what she had. No one had any idea what was coming for them. "How far will it expand?" she questioned, watching it roll closer with every passing second.

"With the power I felt coming off that mirror? Everyone outside of Storybrooke, everywhere magic doesn't exist, will be spared."

She felt her jaw drop at his prediction. He hadn't said it exactly but she could read easily enough between the lines and while she'd expected it to affect the town she hadn't expected it to literally affect the entire town! "I have to get to work," she cried, stepping out of the car with her bags the moment that the car stopped.

"Belle you should stay close!" he called after her, but she was already too busy digging around in her bag for her cell phone to turn back and talk to him.

"I'll call you if I find anything," she tossed over her shoulder before calling David's number. He seemed to be the one that she had the most luck with reaching lately. "David!" she screamed the moment he answered, unlocking the library door. She left the books from the house by the circulation desk, grabbed a pair of binoculars she happened to have handy and called the elevator down to her. "I need everyone to meet me at the library. Now! It's an emergency!"

"What kind of emergency? Did you find something?" Had they really not looked out their windows yet? She figured that they at least would have figured there was more going on than just an average storm.

The elevator rattled to a stop and she approached the clock face, the one place in town that she could see everything so easily…including the storm glittering just over the surface of the water. She didn't even need the binoculars to see the anomaly anymore. How had she missed that before?! "Just get here," she demanded, "now!"

And with that she hung up. No, she wasn't usually one for riddles but she knew how it would work if she told David. He'd tell his family, he'd inevitably miss something, they'd all be on different pages, and right now they all needed to be working as one, intelligently, not running around on fools errands. Not if they hoped to survive this. She returned to the front desk of the library, set the books she had brought from home out before her and began paging through, it was the fastest skim reading she'd ever done in her life, but she didn't have time to do much more than that!

The Spell of Shattered Sight. She went through the history first. The book that she'd found here about the one time they'd managed the cure might not have mentioned anything but maybe this would!

"Alright, we're here," Emma announced opening the door for everyone to follow her in only minutes later. Everyone indeed. Her, Elsa, the Charmings, Neal, Hook, even Regina was with them. "What's the big emergency, cause I gotta tell you we've been up half the night so this better be good."

"It's bad," she corrected. "The Spell of Shattered Sight…it's been cast."

There was a silence that overtook the room in the wake of her announcement she'd never heard before, one that she knew everyone was using to try and take in what she'd said before-

"Wait, what?!" Emma exclaimed.

"How do you know this?" Regina asked skeptically.

"The storm," she swallowed, suddenly feeling short of breath from her run here and to and from the clock tower, "the one over the bay, it's not just a storm it's a curse, The Spell of Shattered Sight."

"You're sure about this?" Mary Margaret questioned, holding Neal in her arms as he fussed. Oh, this was not the time to have a baby around.

"It glitters," she said, nodding at her. "Here, you can look for yourself," she said handing over the binoculars to David, "up in the tower, you can see. It's not a storm, it's a curse," she explained looking to Regina, because strange as it seemed, some how she felt that out of all of them The Evil Queen was the one most likely to believe her after what they'd done in the last year together. And sure enough she was the one that turned to the elevator first and led them up there. She held Neal as they went and tried to get back to her book before she realized that it wasn't going to work, that she couldn't watch Neal because her attentions, her arms even, where needed elsewhere.

Fortunately it wasn't long before the group descended again from the clock tower, looking determined as ever. She exchanged Neal for her binoculars and watched as everyone moved for the door. "Wait!" she cried. "Wait, what are we going to do?!" she questioned.

Everyone seemed to look around at each other for a moment, as if they'd all lost the ability to talk, before Emma finally nodded at David. "Go," she said, "get what you need, we'll meet you there." There? There where?

"What's happening?" she questioned.

"We have until sunset," Regina explained as David left. It wasn't as perfect as having them all there, but she'd rather have the majority than only one. "By then it'll have grown enough to cover all of Storybrooke. We have until then to solve this or get the people out."

"Out?"

"Over the ice wall," Emma clarified. Over the ice wall. Leave town?

"But…is that really safe? Our memories-"

"That won't happen," Mary Margaret informed her with a shake of her head. "I made sure of it when I cast the curse in the Enchanted Forest, I had to make sure we could leave and get Emma back into town with our memories intact." Alright, so the memory problem was no longer an issue but…was this really all they could do? Evacuate the town? Leave everything they knew and loved about this world behind? Where would they go? How exactly were they planning on getting over the ice wall?!

"Is that really our best option?" she asked.

"Maybe," Emma answered. "It might be all we can do until Elsa and I can defeat the Snow Queen."

"You and Elsa?" The two girls looked at each other, shared a conversation with one simple glance and she felt like she was playing catch up, like they all knew something that she didn't. Maybe she should have stayed here last night. After what happened this morning, she and Rumple were only a marginally better than they had been because they'd made that trip. Suddenly Elsa stepped forward.

"You remember what we said to you, that night at the police station, about Ingrid wanting two new sisters?" she held her wrist up and it was only then that she realized there was a yellow ribbon tied to it that hadn't been there before. "Last night these just…appeared on our wrists! And the moment they were there it was like…it was like our magic was being drained away, filtered away somehow."

She felt her jaw drop at the news. She took a quick glance at Emma who held up her arm and pushed back her jacket to reveal the ribbon. She sighed as she baulked at the things. She wished that someone besides Ruby had come for Neal, she wished she'd heard about these ribbons last night instead of just now so she could have stayed behind to help! Though, now that she thought about it, she imagined there was very little that she could have done with the information in her head. A bit more time was all she might have been able to buy them.

"They don't come off," Elsa explained, reaching forward and giving the thing a little tug to demonstrate.

"No, they…they probably can't be removed without magic, which I'm guessing neither of you have at the moment?" she assumed once more.

"It comes and goes," Emma answered for her. "You know what this is."

Yes and no. She had a feeling that the only one who really knew what they was would be Ingrid, but she figured she had enough pieces of the puzzle to put it together. Rumple told her that he would have needed a massive amount of power to transfer the dark magic away from the mirror, he'd told her that the power it needed was too great for Ingrid alone, but she hadn't been alone. Not really.

"It's Ingrid," she explained, releasing Elsa's arm. "Sometimes ordinary objects can be enchanted to do great things. These ribbons are similar, I'm guessing if you saw The Snow Queen right now she'd have one of her own. I can't be sure but…I suspect that the ribbons link you together, three sisters, and enable you to share your magic, kind of like a joint bank account you all have the password to. That's how she cast the curse last night, why your magic comes and goes. She's using it too."

"Wait, you're saying she cast the curse with  _our_  powers?" Emma gawked, almost insulted.

She nodded. "It's likely."

"Okay so…if she used our powers to cast the curse can the two of us uncast it?" She opened her mouth and quickly closed it again. Possibly. The book she'd read, the one that told of the curse having a cure had said that it was possible for the caster to undo the spell, just like Regina had been able to undo her original curse before Pan's hit, but…was it possible for others to do it with her magic? She didn't know. But she knew who to ask about it.

"Maybe," she admitted. "I'll go over to the pawn shop and talk to Rumple, he'll know if that's possible and if it's not then maybe the two of us can figure out a way to stop the curse together." Because they surely weren't figuring out how to solve this apart.

"Well…not that I don't have faith in you and your beloved Dark One," Regina sighed, "but in the meantime I need to get Henry out of school and start to prepare in the likely event that evacuation is all we can do."

"The schools…they all need shut down," Mary Margaret realized. "Everyone needs to go home from work!"

"If this curse hits the last thing we'll need is everyone all together in the same place with people they love," she informed Mary Margaret sadly, not just because she knew first hand, but because that left them with few options. They couldn't be around those they loved and they couldn't be around those they knew...how much safe space was there in Storybrooke?

"Alright, well, nobody panic yet," Emma reasoned. "Regina and I will grab Henry, Mom you'll dismiss the schools, and head out to the town line to see if we can get over the ice wall. Even if we can't get over it then everyone will at least be in one place when we warn them. Belle, keep doing research. Let us know if you find anything. This'll work. We just have to take it one step at a time and not lose our heads."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter turned out to be not as hard as I thought it was going to be. When I first saw the scene up in the clock tower and found out Belle had discovered the curse and warned them and yet was no where in sight in the clock tower I wondered if I'd be able to come up with a good excuse for everyone to be where she wasn't. But this chapter came out quite easily, much to my shock. And hey, I even got Belle to tell Emma and Elsa about the bracelets they have on their wrists. Winning!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	50. The Advantage of Loopholes

They just had to take it one step at a time. She wouldn't tell Emma how strange it was that  _that_ was her plan. At a time like this, there was no need to bring up how similar the pair of them thought about things. But...one step at a time was Neal's plan practically the entire time they were in the Enchanted Forest plotting for how to get back here! It might not do Emma much good to know that now, but it did her good. It calmed her, allowed her to think reasonably and calmly as she packed her stuff up and the others left the library for the town line, with a brief detour to the diner to let Granny watch Neal.

She needed Rumple. She needed his expertise. She knew he wanted to stay out of it, but the time for that was long gone. If he knew anything then he needed to share it so that they could save the town. He'd done it once before, he could do it again, so-

Why was the door to the pawn shop still locked? She practically crashed into it the moment she arrived, expecting it to just give way at her touch like it always did but…what was he doing in there?! She pulled out her keys quickly and unlocked the door herself. "Rumple!" she called. But the pawnshop was dark and silent. She knew what it was like when there was no one here. She didn't need to go into the back room to confirm he was gone, but she did anyway. Missing. And the car was still parked in the ally, right where they'd left it. Which either meant he'd gone somewhere within walking distance or he'd gone somewhere by magic. He could be anywhere.

She dug into her bag for her cell phone, located his number and-

On second thought she pushed it away.

No. She didn't have time to track her husband down right now. He was the Dark One, he was fine. The town wasn't. As nice as it would have been to have him to help her she didn't need him. For all she knew the answers were in these books somewhere right under her nose. The Spell wouldn't hit until sundown, hours from now so…one hour. She'd give him one hour. If he wasn't back from wherever he'd gone and she hadn't found anything then…she'd summon him. She hated the thought of doing it again but desperate times called for desperate measures. There was no need to track him down when she could just call him to her side in a matter of seconds. Besides, he'd be happy to help her do this then, to stop the curse. In fact, for all she knew, that was what he was trying to do now. He wouldn't have taken her back to that cavern but he might have gone on his own. Maybe they were doing the same thing.

And so she began. And she really wished that it wasn't this easy.

She knew how the books in the basement worked. She knew how to find certain things inside of them. This, the Spell of Shattered Sight…it was almost too easy. It was there. She found it the first time she tried. Right where she would expect it, listed with other curses that were rooted in non-magical objects.

_"The Curse of the Looking Glass, sometimes more commonly known as the Spell of Shattered Sight is a tricky devil. It allows for a sorcerer or sorceress to store up dark magic within a mirror of their choosing. Once the mirror is shattered, the curse is cast and the magic is released, those effected by the curse will lose the ability to see the good in themselves as well as those around them. The curse will not cease until all those effected have destroyed one another._

_"The curse is assembled by first choosing a mirror, of any size or shape, the only requirement is that the mirror must never have been touched by magic prior to the use of this spell, not even used as a simple spy glass. Once obtained the glass must be torn from the frame, a spell cast to bind Dark Magic to the remains, and a blood spell to tie the mirror to the caster in order to specify the wishes carried out by the caster must be given. Once these three things are done then the assembly may begin._

_"Other mirrors, ones used and imbued with Dark Magic may be used to reconstruct the glass. The more magic, the better. The Darker and stronger the magic the better. For this reason care should be taken when choosing which fragments of glass to include. It is also theorized, though not proved, that hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny fragments are better to use than two or three large pieces. If the caster believes in this particular theory the size of the fragment is irrelevant. Each fragment brings with it the full representation and as such the full power of the Dark Magic it originally came from. Therefore it may be the difference between using the Dark Magic from thousands of mirrors as opposed to two or three._

_Unlike other curses tied to magical objects, this curse is not dependent upon the size of the mirror that it is attached to, but rather upon the combined darkness of the mirrors used to place it together. A floor length mirror may be the tether for this curse as it builds, but if the caster is not careful or thoughtful with the Dark magic imbued then it may have only the power, once cast, to effect those living only in the dwelling place of the mirror, nothing but a simple spell gone wrong. On the contrary, if a caster is particularly selective, patient, and delicate enough to find perfect and ideal matches, then the tether used could be a small pocket mirror and the results could be the destruction of an entire Kingdom, a powerful curse._

_"The Spell of Shattered Sight is well known among the magical community for the terror that it has inflicted over the centuries. It is frighteningly easy to cast, so much so that some even argue those without magical ability have the competency to assemble the magic required for the spell though there is some question as to whether or not a non-magical practitioner could ever actually cast it, that is shatter such a powerful mirror, without the help of someone magical."_

She shook her head and took a breath. Her jaw clenched together in anger and frustration. All this time. The answer had been in the basement! From the beginning it had been...

She'd been an idiot. Next time it was straight to these books, not as a last resort. They could have learned about this days ago if she'd thought to use her head and been prepared! She knew better. Rumple was right, she did know what was in these books. Spells and curses that proclaimed terror and destruction and then instructions on how to accomplish those goals! She shuddered to think about who wrote these. It made her stomach turn to think that he'd written a couple of them, though not this one. She knew his hand writing well enough to know this wasn't it. So he hadn't written this entry exactly, he had no notes made in this book or even in this chapter. That was good. Maybe he really didn't know what was in this book. Maybe he'd only known because of the reverence the book said this curse carried with it.

She sighed, sat down on the cot, and cradled the book there on her legs. Alright. So after the book warned about the terrible things it could do it was very specific on how to create the curse. Would it have something on removing it?

_"In order to cast the curse, a proportional amount of magic, Light or Dark, is necessary to cast it. Many sorcerers see this as a caveat for producing this spell and choose not to enact it for this reason. The spell is only as strong as the caster and it is much simpler to use the energy on another curse that will multiply the power of the caster._

_However if the proper amount of magic can be summoned, and the curse is cast, the spell will need time to increase. Like a great shimmering storm cloud it will reach into the sky, expand as far and wide as its power allows and rain down on everyone below. Once cast the storm is unstoppable. Once touched, those that fall prey to it will be condemned. The only one with the power to recall the spell, to control it, can be the original caster, the one whose blood was used to tie the mirror to themselves. However, depending on the amount of magic used to conjure the Spell of Shattered Sight, it is often considered a Fool's Errand. Either too little power will be absorbed to make any difference and the work that went into putting the spell together will be wasted, or too much power will be absorbed and the caster will be destroyed. Many believe only a true change of heart could lead to the destruction of this destructive spell."_

Nothing. Well, not nothing. But certainly not good news. This spell was going to be horrible, terrible, especially if Ingrid had been able to use Emma's magic to cast it. But now she knew that whether or not Emma and Elsa had access to Ingrid's magic didn't matter. They weren't blood bonded to the spell. She imagined they would probably be immune because of the connection Ingrid felt they had to one another, but they had no way to stop it. Not unless Ingrid herself did it and even if she did, even if Emma and Elsa could do it, they'd be destroyed in the end. Nothing.

So where else could she go? The book about Dark Magic's History. She wanted to track down that story she'd located about the one time someone had managed to reverse the effects of the spell. If the Spell of Shattered Sight was as popular as the book assumed it was in the magical community someone managing to stop it should have made waves! It should warrant somebody writing something about it down!

On and one she paged through the book. She was certain it had happened before "this", or after "that", or close to "this time". Fortunately enough for her this book was a little more recent, if only being written a couple hundred years ago could be considered recent. It had headers and with the turn of the page one of them caught her eye.  _"A Downfall to the Curse of the Looking Glass"._

"More commonly called the Spell of Shattered Sight," she gloated, smiling at her discovery. No. She didn't need her husband to do what she knew best. She just needed the sense to go down to the basement every once in a while!

It was the same old story, the one she'd read in the library. An amateur magician had put the spell together in revenge for her husband running off with someone or other, a feeling she was thrilled she'd never have to know, but the woman's spell was weak, probably for the reasons she'd read about before, and it only effected a few households. The towns people quickly realized what had happened and intelligently isolated all those effected from one another, then they were able to call a sorcerer well versed in magic to the town to help and he was able to find the cure.

_"It was a dark day for those practicing Dark magic. A spell that was once seen as unstoppable was brought down by a simple cure that warded against curses created with items of non-magical persuasion. In an ironic twist of fate, the object that has so often been seen as the spells strongest link, the use of a mirror as a receptacle for Dark Magic, was suddenly used as the spells weakest link."_

The mirror. She had to focus on the mirror? No, it was already shattered but…in the story the mirror had been shattered, the spell already enacted. In fact the spell had already touched others when they'd found the loophole and cured the others.  _"…a simple cure that warded against curses created with items of non-magical persuasion."_ The book she'd brought with her, the one about the curse, she was right that was the key to solving this! So what now. This book was old. Older than the other two, she just hoped that it had what she needed.  _A Theoretical Guide to Magical Cures for Dark Magic._ She'd take theory right now. She'd take anything right now. Chapter by chapter, page by page, there were no headings in this book. No table of contents, no chapter titles, barely any sections it just went one thing to another in a foreign language she hadn't translated in nearly a decade. But she was able to decipher it. It was just a lot of what she didn't need. It was actual cures. For bones broken by curses, skin seared off by poison, pain inflicted by the elements of magic, and…was she reading this right?  _"Inoculations against curses of physical means"._ Not her best translation, but it was close enough to what she was looking for and she read on eagerly.

_"Curses cast with the help of physical objects all have one major flaw: they carry traces of the curse with them, and since no magic may ever be destroyed this small piece of used magic may be redirected to cure those who have been touched by the foul curse, or inoculate others against a coming curse. By overpowering a small bit of Dark magic with powerful Light magic then the magic can be rechanneled by acquiring a bit of the object used in the original spell, or by using a bit of hair from one that has been affected by a Dark curse and survived. Perhaps it is nature's way of rewarding those of great valor, who walk through fire and lived to tell the tale that a curse by the same sorcerer or sorceress cannot strike a person twice."_

That was it. That might be the answer. It was a complicated spell, she knew that, figuring out how to redirect the magic and make enough of it for the whole town would take more than just her or even Rumple. She wasn't even sure Rumple could because of his magic. Emma and Elsa probably couldn't because Ingrid could tap into their power at any moment. But the fairies. They could do it. Get enough of this made for the entire town. Which meant they only needed one last thing. A bit of the curse as it existed now, hovering above their heads. Emma and Elsa couldn't stop this…but maybe they could use their magic to get a piece of it for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like sometimes Research!Belle should have her own awesome theme song in the Moments Series. I can't even tell you how much I love writing these chapters and how much fun they are to really think through for me! This one was especially fun, though digging out the books from the basement...I had to save that for now. Sometimes it just bugs me how easy things come to them. All week they've been looking for a solution and found nothing but then all of a sudden right in the nick of time they get it...it bugs me. Yes, I know it's a TV show and it's not real life and miracles like that are supposed to happen, but...I don't know maybe that is why I do Moments. I want to add a dash of realism to it all!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	51. The New Plan

The bell on the door set her heart pounding in her chest. Rumpelstiltskin! He was back! Maybe he could get the piece of the curse they needed to-

"Gold!" she heard Emma call out. "Are you here?" Her heart dropped despite the fact that if it wasn't Rumple then Emma was the next best thing. She just wished she didn't have to put together the puzzle of where he had gone to while she was also dealing with this. "Oh, wrong Gold," Emma muttered when she rounded the corner of the shop and appeared. "But definitely the friendlier of the two. Listen…going over the wall, not much of an option any more. I don't think it'll come down for anyone but Ingrid and I doubt she's willing to negotiate. The curse is coming. We need to stop it. Any luck?" she asked finally taking a breath.

Any luck. Yes and no. "No," she sighed. "It pretty much appears to be unstoppable," she answered sadly. Emma's face fell at the sad news but she didn't understand, unstoppable didn't necessarily mean unfixable. "The one thing I did find is there may be a way to undo the effects from anyone it touches," she informed them.

Elsa gave a small sigh of relief beside her new friend, understanding immediately what she was saying. "Belle, that's wonderful!" she beamed. Emma however looked more skeptical and probably rightfully so. Elsa didn't understand that nothing in Storybrooke was ever simple.

"It seems that when somebody's been touched by the spell that you can use them to undo it. With a strand of their hair you can make some kind of counter spell, like a vaccine," but there was no one that had ever survived the spell that she was aware of, at least not living today. Which meant the only other option was getting the girls to go after a part of the curse themselves. It seemed impossible, but if she'd learned anything it was that nothing was ever-

"My sister!" Elsa exclaimed suddenly, looking at Emma before she could finish.

"What?" Emma questioned.

"My aunt said that she put me in that urn, I didn't believe her because Anna would never do that unless she was under that spell!" Elsa reasoned. "We have to get to her!" Her stomach rolled in her belly. Again with this. They couldn't get to Anna because of her…because she'd allowed Ingrid to take her. She'd doomed them all.

"But you, you still don't know where she is," she pointed out sadly, wishing she didn't have to. Even then, even if they could find her there was no proof that she'd been effected by the spell. It was only speculation.

"No but now you can help me find her," Elsa suggested. Help find Anna? Help fix this, the right way?! In a heartbeat! But she'd been trying, already looked down every road and come up so far with nothing. "You said if I had something of hers you could use this locator spell, well now I have something of hers!" she said happily pulling out a blue bag and upending the contents onto her hand. The necklace! The broken and burned snowflake necklace that had started all of this to begin with. She'd gotten it back! She felt her jaw drop as Elsa offered it to her and she reached out for it. A feeling of hope shot through her as she held it in her hands. Was it actually possible that something had gone right for once? That a long shot had actually worked out in their favor. Yes! Yes, it had. And that meant that not only could she help the town but she could finally fix this, everything! She could finally correct the mistake she'd made long ago and find Anna! Bring her home! "Sometimes, sentimentality pays off," Elsa commented proudly.

"Point, Elsa," Emma commented beside her, but…she couldn't bring herself to look up at them and smile, to be happy at their discovery because something had caught her eye, something shimmering in the damaged pendant! On the pendant. She could feel it there as she moved her finger over it. It wasn't smooth like metal and stone it was sharp and scratchy, like little grains of sand. Fire damage wouldn't cause that. She quickly pulled the magnifying glass he kept out on the table closer to her and examined the thing, wondering if she needed more light to figure it out when she realized…it wasn't dust caught in the crevices. It was tiny fragments of a glass. A mirror. The Spell of Shattered Sight. "There's…mirror dust in this!" she explained. "Actually embedded in the metal." Which meant…

"So I was right, she was under that spell," Elsa stated. Relief coursed through her. It was a terrible time for it, truly it was but this meant…this meant that Anna might not have been with Ingrid the entire time. She might have gotten back to her sister, she would have had to in order to put her in that urn! Of course without Anna here she had no idea how the chain of events might have played out. Capturing Anna might have been what allowed Ingrid to cast a spell on her in the first place. But now…they could fix this. They had to.

"So if we find Anna…she can save everyone!" Elsa gasped, smiling at Emma. She wasn't wrong. A strand of Anna's hair would do to redirect the curse. But she wasn't sure Elsa was right either. A single strand might not do it. For the amount of potion they would need more than one. This plan really did hinge upon them finding Anna. And her getting a little help to work with the quantity she needed to produce for every man woman and child in this town.

The fairies. They'd help her. Mother Superior had offered her assistance before. She believed she would again. "I'll round up the fairies, they can…set up shop somewhere close and figure out how to make the counter spell," she suggested.

Elsa reached forward for her hand, her smile almost too radiant. "Thank you," she breathed happily. "Let's go!"

"Elsa, you realize this is a long shot," Emma stated, stopping her from running out the door that very second. "I was time traveling when I brought you here and when Anna disappeared it was-"

"Thirty years ago, I know," the woman interrupted sounding hurt. Now that she thought about it Emma had an excellent point. Anna had been missing for three decades, there was no clues as to what had happened to her after she'd shut Elsa away in that urn. No idea what Ingrid had done to her after she'd enacted that plan. "But she's okay, she has to be," Elsa insisted. "And I don't care how old she is, she can save us!"

"Okay then…" Emma still looked skeptical, she felt skeptical about the situation but it was the only idea they had. They had to believe in something. "We're relying on mirror dust and fairies, but now we have a plan which is progress. Let's go find your sister! Belle, that locator potion you offered, do you have it?"

That was an excellent question. She'd used the last one that she had on Ariel a couple of weeks ago and told Rumple he might want to replace it but she didn't actually know if he had or not. She gently handed Anna's necklace back to her sister and excused herself to the back room where she located his black bag. No. There was no locator potion in here. In all honesty she knew the formula to make it and with all the golden thread that he had in here she could always use his magic to make one but that took time. Precious time. They would need every second they could spare to create the reversal and every second before that to actually find Anna for her hair! She didn't have time to make a new potion but…maybe she didn't have to.

There was a small vial in the corner of the bag, another potion that she recognized that was a variation on the Locator Spell. It wasn't perfect but it would have to do for now. In all honesty the time that the two potions took probably wouldn't be that much different anyway.

"Have you ever used a Tracking Spell?" she asked Emma returning to the front with the vial of liquid.

"Yeah, well…not personally. My Dad has though. He followed my mother's ring in the Enchanted Forest to find her." Good enough for her.

"You won't need much, a couple of drops and that's it," she said handing it to her. "It'll get you to Anna. When you have her let me know, I'll tell you were you can find us."

"Okay," Emma breathed quickly moving toward the door.

"Thank you, Belle," Elsa breathed one last time, reaching out and squeezing her hand before following after Emma.

The sound of rolling thunder made everyone pause before they could reach the doors. Was it her imagination, or were the walls shaking? "Emma," she swallowed when it was over, staring her down from her place behind the curtain. "Hurry."

Without another word she gave her a small nod and the pair of them left the shop to search for their last chance to correct the past and save the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, pretty basic chapter that we all saw coming. I'll admit it...nothing to see here!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	52. The Product of Light and Dark Magic

As it turned out she thought that Emma and Elsa might have actually had an easier time finding Anna than she did with finding Mother Superior. The convent wasn't exactly a number that she kept on her phone, though now she'd have to make sure that it was, and by the time she'd found a dusty old phone book in the shop and called the convent she didn't want to know how much time had passed. Still it wasn't over. It wasn't like the convents number was a direct line to the Blue Fairy, merely to a church office, where a woman named Astrid answered, telling her she'd go off and find Superior. She tapped her toe as she waited. Probably this all would have been faster if she'd just driven up to the woman herself-

"Belle? What can I do for you?"

"Mother!" she finally sighed sitting forward. "There's magic in the air, in the storm, can you feel it?"

"We can Belle," she said sadly. "The Spell of Shattered Sight, I've felt it before. But I don't know a way to stop it I'm afraid."

"I do," she said quickly, "but I think I'm going to need your help." Mother Superior was impressed, naturally, that she'd managed to find some way to defeat this curse, and after she finished her explanation the woman promised her that she and the fairies could help her do what she asked but it would take time and a space that was convenient for everyone to make the distribution easier and faster, in other words not the middle of nowhere as the convent was. She could provide that, or at least she was sure the diner could. Given the circumstances she was sure Granny would let them use it for something like this. All she needed from them was the magic and as much of the ingredients as they could bring. She told her not to worry about that. It wouldn't be an issue. All she needed was a chance to round up the fairies and scrape together what they had in the church vans and they'd be there within the hour.

"A half hour," she amended. "We don't have a lot of time, just until sundown-"

"Understood," she responded. "Secure the diner and we'll be there within the half hour, you have my word."

Fortunately the diners number she did have, along with the inn's and Granny's cell phone. She'd been right. All she said was that she and the fairies needed a place to work out of to fix the curse and Granny had happily responded with "say no more the place is yours. Not like the storm of the century is good for business anyway."

Which left her only one thing left to do and really, in all honesty, she couldn't quite understand why she was so hesitant to call her husband. She'd promised she would, probably she should have called him hours ago, even with the time crunch, but now…she had to do it. And there was no reason not to. He'd be happy about the cure. She didn't know if he could do anything to help but it never hurt to ask, certainly.

"Rumple?" she questioned when she heard his voice on the other end. "Rumple where are you?"

"Making preparations," he answered quickly. "This curse is going to hit and you're going to need to be protected, safe. You should go to the shop and stay there until I arrive." She nearly sighed with relief. Protection. That was like him. She should have figured. But he admired her heroism, wasn't that what he'd said last night? He should have realized that nothing was going to keep her here in the shop.

"Actually it might not be necessary," she commented finding her things, locking up the shop, and starting the walk to the diner. "I may have found something, a way to stop the curse, to cure us all." She told him all that she'd found as she walked down the street, the thunder rolling overhead, the wind whipping around corners as the spell picked up momentum a little more with every second. The diner was empty when she arrived. This could work. "Is there anything you can do to help?" she questioned, allowing herself to take a seat at one of the tables.

"I'm afraid not, Belle, you'll need Light magic for what you are attempting to accomplish and any magic that I possess will be the opposite."

She nodded. It didn't exactly surprise her. She'd honestly expected an answer like that to begin with. But she had hoped…she didn't know what she hoped. It wasn't as though she needed him. The sad truth was that when these things came along they were usually separated to begin with and she was used to working through emergencies without him. They didn't need to do this together.

"You'll be fine," he reassured her on the other end, misinterpreting her silence. "Probably more help than I could be amid a group like that." She smirked and snorted at that comment. Yes. He'd never exactly expressed anything other than annoyance for Mother Superior and her brood, for something like this, perhaps she was better than he was. "But Belle…I will be by in a bit to pick you up. Just in case this doesn't work, the fairies will need to handle it and you'll need to be safe. No matter what I'll keep you safe."

There it was again. The over protective tone that she disliked. The one that tried hard to run her life too much. No one decided her fate but her…and him. She'd decided that when she got him back from Zelena. Either they were in this together or they weren't. Either they were equal partners in this marriage or…there was no or. She had to stay safe for him. She couldn't let him lose her too just because of a stupid mistake she'd made. So when she finally arrived at the diner she confirmed sadly that she would go with him when he arrived but...

Just then the fairies arrived, nearly making her jump as they got up and set to work immediately moving chairs and tables, placing pots and tubes and glass beakers on any surface they could find! They moved swiftly and automatically without instruction or explanation and as she caught a glimpse of Mother Superior at the door, overseeing the work, she knew leaving would be much harder than he would like.

"Just…give me an hour or so," she asked him. "Please Rumple, if I can't see it through to the end I need to know that there will at least be 'an end'."

She heard him sigh on the other end and after the week they'd had she knew the look that would be on his face. "I'll give you what the curse allows," he relented. It wasn't the promise of an hour, but it would have to do. She said good-bye and after a moment she needed to collect herself, she began.

She ran outside to where the vans were parked, began shuttling items into the diner just as the others were until Mother Superior found her and pulled her aside.

"Did you bring it?" She nodded and pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. The necessary ingredients to counter a curse born of a non-magical item. She'd copied them down on a piece of paper because after her argument with Rumple this morning she wasn't about to bring the actual book with her. "Alright," Mother Superior sighed walking into the diner and letting the other fairies continue their assembly line. "The way this works is after we've changed the nature of the spell to light magic, we'll need to apply that magic to every person in the same way The Snow Queen's curse will be distributed."

The same way the curse would be distributed. What did that mean? "How exactly is that?" she questioned.

"The Spell of Shattered gains access through the eyes," she answered quickly, going through the paper before heading into the back room which was already stocked with crates that she suspected were not filled with food for cooking. She began writing on a piece of paper, listing items with numbers like a shopping list or a recipe before she handed it back to her again. "The last curse we made a spell like this for was absorbed through hands. These are the ratios. We'll need at least two drops, per eye, per person…"

She didn't need to do the math to know. They were going to need to produce massive quantities of this spell. "Where do we start? How do I help?"

"Start with the math then start crushing or chopping or grinding something. We don't have a lot of time so we'll need to make sure this spell is nearly ready to go by the time the hair gets here."

"Well do we have enough time?" she asked as Mother Superior began separating things out and moving them around the kitchen.

"If they find the girl fast and we work just as fast, yes. We were lucky you called when you did."

Just in time then. So long as everything went according to plan. They had no time to waste. She glanced over at the ingredients and the number of residents of Storybrooke Mother Superior had written down at the bottom and ingredient by ingredient divided and multiplied to find the exact numbers they needed. Then, just for extra measure, she increased the number of residence by fifty. That should give them enough, plus some to keep in storage for safe keeping on the off chance anything like this every happened again. She looked at the ingredients that they had, she looked at the system the fairies had already put together, and at those who were flitting around doing next to nothing.

No one could be doing nothing right now. It just wouldn't work that way. So she grabbed all the idle fairies she could and gave each of them something to chop, grind, pour, or mix along with its designated number. "No more and no less," she ordered each time. "It has to be exact."

They knew that. But nevertheless every time it happened they smiled at her and gave her polite nods before getting to work. Light magic. She liked it. Working on it felt different than her work with Dark magic. She couldn't quite describe it, but she knew that it was different. Different enough to convince her that Rumple never needed to worry about her practicing Dark magic nearly as much as he would her practicing Light magic. Not that she really could. The only thing that she had to invoke magic at her disposal was golden thread and the base root of that magic was Dark. It always would be. Mirror or no mirror.

She heard the bell to the shop chime and her heart skipped a beat. Emma. She must have found Anna. She could see her friend again! This could work! This could-

Rumple? Rumple was here? She should have guessed from the sudden silence in the room but she didn't understand hadn't he said she had an hour? Had that time passed by already?

"What do you want?" she heard Mother Superior snap behind her.

"Excuse me but I'd like to borrow my wife," he answered coolly making his way toward her. She struggled to find words. It must have been all the Light Magic in the room. She'd become so accustom to it that it made his Dark magic…darker somehow. Or was this just another fault of the mirror? The coming curse? It was possible to feel rain before it poured. Was this just the beginning?

"I need you at the shop for a short while," he requested taking her hand and looking her over almost nervously.

"She's working! We need her," Mother Superior argued behind her back, snapping her back to attention. Magic in the air or not she couldn't let it affect her. She didn't want to go yet. They had time left! He hadn't said he'd get her at the hour he'd said as long as the curse allowed. There was still time. She was needed here.

"Mother Superior's right, this is too important," she felt herself nod, trying to shake her strange feelings away. He needed her, for preparations, for just in case this didn't work but they needed her here. Those preparations wouldn't be necessary if they succeeded here now. "We're really close here Rumple, please? Please be patient?"

He wasn't happy. She could tell by his hesitation, even when he did nod and offer her a smirk of compliance. It wasn't genuine. "Of course," he whispered. "Well, until you can go I'll just, uh…I'll just keep you company," he suggested. Her stomach rolled and left her speechless as she watched him. She didn't understand that reaction, but she did understand her confusion. Hadn't he not wanted to get involved? Hadn't he told her that this was her attempt?

"Perhaps I'll be helpful," he suggested after a moment. Helpful. Yes. Yes, he probably could be even with his Darker magic, but-

Just then she heard a bang behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see Mother Superior stride out of the kitchen, looking upset with him. Just like all the other fairies with her. "This is Light Magic, Dark One!" she argued.

"Well then maybe I'll learn something," he argued with a false charming smile. It was a traditional Dark One smile, one he would have given at the castle when he was toying with someone and she had the urge to snap at him, to tell him to stop, but then again the looks Mother Superior and others were giving him weren't exactly friendly either. His mask was on, but as much as it turned her stomach maybe there was good reason for it to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted for it to be obvious that something wasn't right, that Belle was starting to see more darkness in him and get more and more suspicious of that darkness. And at the same time I wanted her to see something was off, I wanted us to see her dismissing it...again! She's not quite sure, but she knows that something is wrong she just doesn't know what that something is. Is it him? She doesn't want to think that because it would make her a terrible wife. So is it the room then? All the Light Magic in the air? Is it the curse acting early? It must be because in her mind it absolutely cannot be that it's him. In a strange twist of fate her heart here is telling her that things are not alright and her mind is telling her they are.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	53. The Best Worst Option

Time was passing. Faster than it should have. Or at least that was the way that it felt.

They were working. Diligently working. And their work was paying off. She'd checked the ingredients. Twice. Three times. The apparatus they'd put together was complete! Everything was ready. Perfectly ready! Except of course for two things.

Her husband, who was still sitting in the corner where she'd left him, dutifully guarding her bag and coat as he watched the flurry of fairies move around him almost nervously. But then again he wasn't the only one. It hadn't escaped her notice the way that the fairies scuttled away from him, sometimes walking the entire way around the table just to avoid getting too close to him. Or the way that they eyed him suspiciously from the corner of their eyes. But her husband was the least of her worries at the moment.

It was Anna, the last thing that was keeping this scene from being truly ideal. They needed Anna's hair. As soon as they had it they could complete the spell and begin distributing the cures to the citizens of Storybrooke. But they just didn't have it yet, despite the fact that she'd texted Emma, as promised to tell her where to bring her friend.

"Belle…we need that hair," Mother Superior whispered to her as she completed her fourth check of everything in the last fifteen minutes. "We can't wait too much longer for it."

"We can," she assured the woman. "We have time left. Everything is ready once we have it this should only take minutes to finish. We just have to be a patient a little while longer. As soon as they find her, they'll bring her here."

"Find her?" Mother Superior exclaimed. "I thought they just had to go and get someone, you never mentioned that they had to look for this person!"

Hadn't she? This was why she preferred to discuss information to people in large groups. Something always got lost in translation after the story had been told too many times to remember. "Anna," she finally sighed, "Elsa's sister, she hasn't been seen for thirty years but we found mirror dust in her necklace, that's how we know she was affected by the curse. They're using it right now with a tracking spell to locate her. If she wasn't alive then the tracking spell wouldn't work. They'll find her in time."

But Mother Superior's eyes had gone round at her explanation. "We don't need her," she muttered suddenly.

"What?" she questioned. Had she just her that correctly? They didn't need Anna?!

"The necklace, you didn't mention that before either. But it had mirror dust in it, from a previously cast curse, from the Snow Queen, you're sure?" Sure? No, of course not, she couldn't be sure until they actually found and talked to Anna but at the moment she couldn't think of anyone else that would have cast that curse. Not to mention the coincidence involved if Anna had run into another person that had cast the spell over her and forced her to lock her sister away other than Ingrid.

She nodded. Maybe she could be sure. "Then we don't need Anna," Mother Superior breathed. She glanced up at the clock, then turned back to the room. "Girls! There's been a slight change of plans! We're going to need a few more things! Get everything you can together for a magical extraction. Quickly, hurry!" The room seemed to buzz once more with energy as they followed Superieors orders. She turned to question what was happening but only found herself face to Mother Superior herself!

"Belle, listen to me!" she stated grabbing her by the arms and looking her dead in the eye with desperation. "I need you to locate that necklace."

"The necklace?"

"We don't need hair if we have the curse itself, so long as we're confident it was cast by the same person, it'll carry the same magical signature. But we need to move quickly. Extracting the curse will take more time than just adding a few hairs to the batch."

Oh, she was breathless as she recalled the one fact she'd let slip through her mind at the first thought of seeing Anna again so soon. How could she have been so ignorant and forgotten so quickly! They could use a piece of the curse itself! That had been her original plan! To get Elsa and Emma to somehow collect a bit of the curse floating above their heads. They really had the answer this entire time?! They could really remove it from the metal.

She fumbled over to Rumpelstiltskin for her bag, pushing everything away to locate her cell phone. "How long will you need?" she questioned. "To pull the dust from the necklace, how long will it take?"

"Well it's not a matter of how fast we can pull the curse from the necklace as it is how fast we can destroy the necklace to get to the curse."

She paused. They had to destroy the necklace. The one chance they had to get to Anna? They had to destroy it? "Belle," her hand was suddenly enveloped in Rumple's warm one, his tone gentle as his thumb moved over the back of her hand. It wasn't good news. "The Dark Magic in those dust particles will have bound themselves to the necklace. They'll have to destroy the metal to be left with the raw material of the curse," he explained. Her jaw dropped. Maybe she didn't know Dark Magic as well as she thought she did yet.

"But then…how will Elsa find Anna?" The answer was written very clearly on his face. "They won't, will they?" But the moment he opened his mouth to answer she found her hand pulled from him by Mother Superior?

"They will," she insisted. "They will find her because if we get that necklace we'll have all the time in the world to search for her. But right now, we need that necklace. It'll take time to get to the curse and if we get it in the next few minutes we can make it work. I'm sorry, but it's Anna or the town."

Anna or…

Here she was at a crossroads again. Either or. Anna or her memories. Anna or the town. Last time she'd chosen her memories and Anna had suffered. She'd regretted the decision ever since. This time. This time was different. Then she had chosen wrong. Anna had been the right choice before but that didn't mean she was the right choice now. She didn't like it. This felt like betrayal all over again but for the lives of the many, Anna had to suffer again. She hoped they'd find her one day. She hoped that she'd get to apologize for then and now. But from where she was standing right now…it could be a long time.

Sadly her fingers moved over the buttons on her phone. David. She could always get David. And he always had a way of delivering bad news, though as much as she justified it, this time around it felt like an act of cowardice.

"David, the spell is ready, I don't suppose you know if Emma and Elsa found Anna yet?"

"Soon," David responded. "They need a few more hours."

Hours. If only he'd said minutes. "Anna's necklace…they still have it?"

"Yeah, the tracking spell works, we just have to get through a couple of walls and we'll be able to keep going." Hours, not minutes.

"Listen, I...I made a mistake," she explained. "We need that necklace. We need the mirror dust inside of it. If we use that then we don't need Anna, we can inoculate everyone in the town and begin to distribute the cure, but it'll take a while to extract the magic from the necklace. We need it now!"

"Wait a minute when you say 'extract'…?"

Sometimes David could be smarter than he looked. "That's the catch. The necklace won't survive. It'll be destroyed. But the town…everyone will be safe." She stood there and waited for a response, for a question, an outburst, anything. But all she got was silence. "David?"

"This is the only way?" he questioned, his voice in a hushed whisper that told him he was trying to keep the news from whoever happened to be around him at the moment. "You're sure? You need this necklace now? It can't wait a few more hours?"

She swallowed as she gave a nod he couldn't see. "I'm sure, this is what it comes down to. We need the necklace now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Belle...I wanted this to be just as difficult a decision for her as it was for Elsa and Emma. I hope that came through just fine here. I know it's hard, seeing Rumple lying and returning as a villain...but I have to do it. Alas...I'm doing the best with what I was given and I do hope that it's easy to see that while Rumple is a villain he is still a loving husband. I do believe he genuinely is sad for Belle when she learns the necklace will be destroyed.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	54. When the Wrong Choice is Right

It was Emma's choice. That was what David told her before he hung up. He'd explain the situation to Emma, let her weigh the options, and she would decide what to do. In some ways she was almost happy he'd said that. Now it was out of her hands. She didn't feel like she was condemning Anna or making the choice to go after her. In other ways she hated that she'd just knowingly passed the guilt on to Emma like that. She should have been cruel and just demanded the necklace. Or better yet she should have used her new found ability to lie and told them that they would give the necklace back when they were done with it. That surely would have been better than the choice that she'd just forced them to make.

"There was nothing you could do," Rumpelstiltskin muttered, leaning forward and taking her hand again. "Dark Magic never plays fair. You know that better than anyone."

She did. They both did. But that didn't make it any easier. So she nodded, squeezed his hand before letting go and wiping her eyes before anyone could see just how much doing this again killed her. Later. They could add it to the long list of things they needed to talk about later. "I, uh, I have to go check…something," she muttered.

"Belle we should go," he insisted reaching for her again. "You've done all you can, they can handle it from here! We need to get you safe!"

No. No they didn't. They were right on the brink of figuring this all out. Fairies were moving around the room like wasps, going to and from the vans as they gathered the necessary ingredients to make the extraction, she couldn't be positive but she was almost sure she'd even seen a few of them outright get in the van and leave without anyone noticing, probably to get more. They were close to being able to handle it all, but not there entirely. And yes, they were older and wiser and it wouldn't make a difference to them if she left, but it would make a difference to her. There was an hour still to go before sundown, for all she knew she could use the cure in the next minute or two! No. She had to see this through. "Just a little more time," she insisted with a small voice. "Please." And without waiting to see whether or not he agreed with her she left to check everything they had again, to go over the apparatus, to wonder what would happen if Emma chose Anna over the town? Somehow, if she did that, she didn't think she could blame her. Besides, everything was set up, Emma had magic, maybe they didn't need the necklace, maybe they just needed to leave everything alone and she could leave instructions for her on how to make the counter spell after the Spell of Shattered Sight hit and they had Anna!

But then the door finally opened and everyone seemed to come pouring in! Well, everyone except Anna…and Elsa. She couldn't blame them, so long as they hadn't given up completely. It wasn't how she wanted this to turn out, but for the good of the town she had to put this behind her for now.

"The necklace, do you have it?" she asked running over to Emma.

"It's right here," she said handing her the blue pouch.

"Thanks," she breathed taking it from her and hurrying back to her work space. Mother Superior gave her a reassuring nod and held out her hand for it. It wasn't perfect, but everything was ready. Just in the nick of time, but still everything was-

Wrong. Very wrong. When Mother Superior turned the bag over for the necklace what came out wasn't the charred snowflake, but stones.

"Its pebbles from the mine," Mother Superior announced, looking around confused. Was this a joke?

"What?!" Emma gawked. No, apparently not! She looked genuinely confused.

"Where is it?" Mary Margaret questioned beside her.

"She tricked us so she can use it to keep tracking down her damn sister!" Regina accused quickly…and probably correctly. She couldn't say she was surprised. "I should know better than to trust blondes by now," she muttered after taking a deep breath and getting herself under control. Oh, if this spell hit and there was no cure…she didn't want to be anywhere near Regina.

"We have to go back and get it," Emma insisted.

She glanced at the clock, remembering what Superior had said about it before she'd made that call. Time was up. "No, it's…it's too late," she said sadly. She wished it wasn't. She wished so much right now, but she couldn't change any of it. They'd had two chances, two opportunities to get this right, and now both had slipped through their fingers.

"Too late!" Mary Margret shouted. "Already?!"

"By the time you get back here, yes," she pointed out. Could they really not hear the thunder getting closer, see the sky getting darker…it was over! Unless Elsa turned up with Anna in the next fifteen minutes or so…this was all useless. They'd have to think of something else at this point, she just wasn't sure what that would be. "Without Anna being here, physically, there's no way to make a counter spell in time." She'd never regretted that choice she'd made on the mountain more, to just accept Anna's death and move on with her life; to not tell anyone! Maybe if she hadn't none of this would have happened. She'd just condemned an entire town because of one childish, selfish choice.

"Time for a hope speech?" Regina taunted looking at Mary Margaret. "Virtues of blind faith?"

"Well, it seems Elsa's blind faith is exactly what's screwing us right now!" Mary Margaret shouted unexpectedly. The words were shocking, she felt her jaw drop at the proclamation. She'd never heard Mary Margaret sound so desperate or hopeless before, not even when they'd been up against Zelena in the Enchanted Forest.

"Coming from you that's just terrifying," Regina stated, looking strangely at her. Apparently she wasn't the only one to notice the change.

"Well I'm not giving up," Emma muttered beside her. "I know she's down in the mines looking for Anna, I'm gonna go help find her."

"Well then go," David sighed at his daughter, "because right now that's our only shot."

With his encouragement Emma didn't waste any time, she was out the door like a rocket. But still no one else moved. It didn't matter if she found her or not, though she did hope that she could, for the rest of them it was already too late.

"I uh…maybe I could leave them a note. Leave everything the way it is," she suggested. "Emma and Elsa, they have Light magic. If they're so confident they'll find Anna then…they could finish the cure after it's hit. Couldn't they?" she asked Superior.

" _If_ they find Anna," Regina corrected.

"No," the nun muttered beside her. "They might be able to but this…this is delicate work. It doesn't just take Light magic it takes skill and precision. She may be the Savior, but her magic is only in its infancy. If she's lucky she'll get to work. But if not…"

She didn't need her to finish to know that it was hopeless.

"So…what does that leave us with?" David questioned. "Isn't there some other way to break the curse? True Loves Kiss?"

She shook her head. "The curse can be reversed by the original caster only or be ended like all other curses if the original caster is destroyed."

"Our future depends on two women who are magically bonded to the original caster…great," Regina drawled.

"No…" Mary Margaret breathed. "No, David this is not our only shot! So long as we have Emma we have a chance!"

"Mary Margaret it's-"

"Small I know! But…David the last time we didn't trust our daughter we ended up regretting it. She can do this. I believe in her. And Elsa...she'll get her and convince her to do the right thing. They'll figure it out, they'll destroy the Snow Queen, they will reverse this." Reverse it. That still meant that they were planning on it hitting. Maybe it was good Rumple had made preparations for her. She shuddered to think about it, after what happened last time but if this was what they were left with…she had to believe that it would break.

"That's the Snow White I know," Regina drawled from across the room, though she couldn't say if she was glad to hear that or not.

Mary Margaret nodded as she looked at her almost sadly. "But, Regina...in the meantime-"

"We have to be as far away from each other as possible," Regina finished for her. "I need to be as far away as possible." Isolation. That was exactly what the towns people had done with the ones that were infected in the story she'd read. For their own good and the sake of everyone else's, they all had to be apart.

"We have to be where we can't harm others and they can't harm us," she explained. "All of us."

Everyone was quiet. No one had anything to say it seemed. How many places in town could someone be completely alone? How fast could they spread this news?! They couldn't. People would die tonight. Without a doubt, there would be losses. And she hated to think about what would happen the longer it went on.

"I have to get Neal from Granny," Mary Margaret commented, with a small sniffle before moving around them and leaving the diner for the Inn. At least Granny and the Lost Boys would be warned. At least Ruby was worlds away and safe.

"I'll make phone calls," David added sadly. "I'll reach as many as I can."

"I need to go get back to Henry," Regina commented. "Lock him away somewhere safe, somewhere even I can't reach him!"

"I can take care of that for you." Nearly every face in the room turned to look at Rumple, still there, sitting in the corner with her bag and jacket. It was the first thing that he'd said since they'd marched in and the truth was that she'd completely forgotten he was there as they spoke.

"Really?!" Regina reeled. "Have you really been here this entire time?!"

"Unfortunately," Mother Superior muttered under her breath.

"I can hide Henry if you like," he offered again. "My magic is stronger than yours," he pointed out.

"Over my dead body!" she cried out. "I will take care of my son just like I'm sure you'll take care of your wife! Unless of course you are willing to make a trade?" No one said anything as the pair of them glared at each other, an evil smirk on Regina's face and a tightly clenched jaw revealing all the anger they had for each other in their complicated relationship. As much as she hated to be used like cattle she had to admit that Regina had played her cards well enough. Rumple would leave her protection up to Regina over…well, like Regina, over his dead body. And she knew it.

"Didn't think so," she muttered quickly at his silence before striding out of the diner. Henry would remain under Regina's protection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually kinda like writing these brief little scenes where the plan is made before it's revealed...if that makes sense. And I really like this one because I feel like I got the characters right, even the ones I usually suck at like Mary Margaret. With any luck I hope you'll agree with me! And honestly I had to throw that little attempt of Rumple's to get Henry into the story line. I felt like it was something he would do at this point and made a lot of sense. I hope that you liked that as well!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	55. What is Faith if Not Blind

The others left just after Regina did to take shelter. The fairies, looking utterly defeated, wanted to do the same but Mother Superior stopped them quickly. "The potion," she stated with authority, "destroy what we have. We can't risk anyone else using what we have here after the curse hit."

"No! Wait!" she cried.

"I'm sorry Belle but things will be bad enough we can't risk anyone getting their hands on it and making things worse."

"No, but...but the light magic to make the potion, I understand it takes skill but there is a chance isn't there? A chance that Emma could make it work?"

She shook her head, "I'm afraid it's never that simple."

"But she could do it?!" she demanded perhaps a little too aggressively. She couldn't help it. She wanted, no, she needed something to go right! She needed this to go right. "The hair and her light magic, she could make the vaccine or at least enough for those of us who know how to assemble it if she found Anna."

Superior sighed. "In theory, yes, but-"

"Then we leave it here," she decided. "Just like this, make sure it's completely prepared and I'll leave Emma a note with instructions on it."

Behind her a roll of thunder echoed through the diner, irritating her because she could see it put everyone on edge when all she wanted was for them to believe this could work! "Belle," Rumple growled behind her. He'd only said one word and she could already hear his own frustration. In his mind this was over...and he wanted her to go. "We really need to get you-"

"Safe, I know, but Rumple…I have to see this through," she insisted, stepping around Superior to take her husband's hand. "We have time enough for that. A chance is better than nothing." This chance wasn't much better than nothing, but it was the least she could do. And besides the instructions would take her five, ten minutes at the most. She owed Anna at least that much effort.

She could feel the eyes and hear the whispers as she suddenly moved forward and found a piece of paper. The fairies were begging Superior to talk with her, to urge her to abandon this and join them at the convent so they could protect her, and she could hear Rumpelstiltskin's anger at that suggestion from across the room as he insisted that she'd be going with him as soon as she was finished because once she started something there was no stopping her until she was done. That was almost enough to make her smile, knowing that he was supporting her in this foolish mission. But it was all she could do now. Foolish or not, this time around she had to know that she had done everything humanly possible. When this failed, when people died tonight, at least it would only marginally be her fault. Her phone went off just then. It did that funny little ring that it did when she got a text message. As much as she wanted to ignore it and keep writing she flipped it open out of instinct and read…and nearly dropped the thing to the floor.

"They found her!" she breathed reading the message over, hoping she hadn't read it wrong.  _We've got Anna and the necklace, heading back now, have everything ready_. The necklace…and Anna! She was alive! "They found her!" she exclaimed running over to Mother Superior. "They found her, they found Anna! She's bringing her back right now! With the necklace!"

"That's almost too good to be true," Rumple muttered from his corner.

"No..." Superior corrected as she took the phone and read the message. Suddenly a smug but sure smile stretched over her lips, "that's the power of Light Magic and faith. Ladies...it appears our hope has been restored. Prepare everything! Well...it appears I was right all along, Dark One," she beamed before turning to face her husband. "You've learned nothing in your time here!"

"I've learned not to trust that plans go as they should. Belle, we really need to get you someplace safe. Belle!" But Superior was already pulling her away from him, toward the back of the room.

"Can we make this work?" she asked Superior the moment they were alone. "I know we're nearly out of time but can you make the counter spell, inoculate yourselves, then send Emma and Elsa to help the others after the spell hits?"

"We can," she confirmed. "There's just enough time, but…" she glanced over her shoulder at Rumpelstiltskin and sneered before looking aback at her. "I don't like him here. I don't want the Dark One to know how to do magic like this. These secrets have been kept sacred for years and I won't be the one that allows them to fall into hands like his."

How to do this? How to create a counter curse? She was certain he already did know how to do it and being here wouldn't make a difference. Besides, he had Dark Magic not Light Magic he couldn't do "this" even if he learned from them! But…now was not the time to debate that. There were more important things going on here than the Fairies distrust of her husband and it wasn't likely to change in the next four or five minutes. If their only caveat for doing the spell was that Rumple couldn't be there…she'd take care of that.

"I can get him to leave," she promised. "Can you do the rest without me?"

"If she truly has found this Anna then we already have," she confirmed. "All that needs done is to add her hair to the spell since we don't need to extract the previous curse from the necklace, but if you're leaving you should be somewhere safe, until Emma can get the counter curse to you."

"Rumple will keep me safe," she declared, but the fairy only looked at her doubtfully, taking her hands in her own.

"Can you be sure about that?" she questioned. "This isn't a time for compliance or statements or even blind faith. You have to be sure."

Could she be sure about that? Yes. Yes she could. That was always one thing that she could be sure about. The happiest and saddest thing about their relationship. The rest of the town could burn to the ground for all he cared but she would always be safe. "I'm sure," she declared. Besides, what was faith if not blind?

After a moment the woman accepted her answer and went back to work, declaring that they needed to be ready to go into production and use the counter on themselves first to ward against the Spell of Shattered Sight and help Emma. She quickly set the example, checking coils, pouring liquid. As much as she needed to stay, there was something she was needed for elsewhere. They'd get to her. Eventually, they would find her and cure her.

"Rumple!" she called catching his attention from across the room, as if she hadn't had it the entire time to begin with. "So Anna's on her way," she breathed checking the message one last time to be sure she hadn't missed anything. She hadn't. She'd done what she could and now she had to take her husband and leave. She wished she could stay and see this through to the end, she wished she could see Anna again with her own two eyes before she needed her for something again so soon! But for now this was how she had to help.

She cast one more look around the room, around what she'd set in motion, and felt her stomach turn as she absent-mindedly took her things from Rumpelstiltskin. "Do you really think they can do it?" she asked him. That was the reason he was so confident she could leave wasn't it? No, it wasn't. She knew the answer before he could say it. He really just wanted to protect her. But after everything that had happened to the pair of them over the last couple of years she couldn't really blame him for worrying about that. Hadn't she once promised to make his assurance a priority anyway?

"Well, perhaps, but uh, if there's one thing I've learned it's…never trust a fairy. Come," he suggested pulling her away. "Let's get you someplace safe," he said ushering her out the door. "Just in case…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Filler chapter, but important filler in my mind. I couldn't get rid of it and I did want to even if I could. I hope you don't mind all these little tiny tidbits we miss out on throughout the series!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	56. Strange Things Are Happening

He wanted to take her some place safe "just in case". Just in case this failed. Just in case she was wrong. Just in case there wasn't time. The clouds over head were ominous. So widespread she could no longer see blue sky or even unaffected grey. They were maybe only minutes away from the curse striking. Maybe this entire thing was doomed from the beginning all because she'd lost Anna. Maybe-

It wasn't doomed. She walked down the street with her husband the hand at her back applying steady pressure urging her forward but at the sight ahead of her she nearly stopped...in fact, she was certain that the world as she knew it did stop. Her jaw dropped as she stared at the vision ahead of her, at the sight that her mind understood but her brain struggled to comprehend. She was there, on the street, walking with Rumpelstiltskin, her husband...but just up ahead a small group of people were walking down the street towards them. Emma and Elsa she recognized in a heartbeat, the man looked like it might have been David if she didn't already know what he was wearing but it was the girl attached to Elsa's arm that made her stumble.

"Anna!" she exclaimed, her voice unable to rise above a whisper from the shock. "It's…it's Anna!" She was there! She'd know her anywhere her face had been frozen perfectly in her memory ever since that wretched event had happened, ever since she thought she was dead, but she wasn't! She was here walking down the street! Toward Granny's. They'd found her. "She's alive," she breathed, happy tears pooling in the corners of her eyes as she took a step forward to run over to her-

And found her husbands arms suddenly locked around her arms. "Belle, we haven't got the time!" he explained catching her before she could go.

No. They had time, just enough of it, she had to see her! She had to apologize! "It's Anna!" she explained, unable to take her eyes off of the girl. "She's alive, I have to go to her-"

"You have to let her go!" he urged, spinning her around so that she couldn't look at Anna and only see him. "Look above you!" he insisted harshly, concern and panic in every line on his face. "The curse is going to hit only minutes from now, the fairies will need every bit of that time to finish the spell you helped them to create. You have to let her go to them!"

"But…" he was right. She knew he was, but...there was just so much she wanted to tell Anna, to say to her! She didn't want to regret not having the opportunity to say it. "But she's alive and-"

"And now you know it," he assured her. "You've seen her with your own two eyes, she's safe just like you wanted. Now you have to let her go to the diner so that you can be somewhere safe until your cure is distributed. If you trust your own plan then you'll have time to talk to her after that. After the curse has been stopped, once you and everyone else in town are safe again."

Time to talk. Yes. Talking was better than saying. Certainly it was, but-

"Please, Belle," he begged the grip on her shoulders tightening as she turned just enough to watch the four of them pass by them across the street, continuing on their path without ever realizing the two of them were there. "Please we have to get you inside."

He was right. Whether she liked it or not distributing the cure would take time. The storm would hit before that. No matter how fast she received it, she had to be somewhere safe. Finally she nodded, giving her permission to go and he quickly wrapped his arm around her again, propelling her forward toward the shop as she glanced over her shoulder to see them continue on their way to Granny's. There would be time later. He was right.

"Now you'll be safe in here," he assured her as they arrived at the shop.

There was lightening crashing overhead. It was close. Maybe not minutes away. Only seconds. They'd have time to get the cure done…wouldn't they? What if they couldn't. "So…you-you can keep the spell out?"

"No," he answered, "but we must be separated." Her heart leapt into her throat. No! No this wasn't right! They were never any good apart. He'd helped her through it once before he could do it again couldn't he? How, exactly did he intend to protect her from others if he wasn't by her side?! "As Dark One I may be immune to the spell but you can still hurt me."

Those words nearly brought tears to her eyes. This was all so backwards. Hadn't he said only days ago she could never hurt him. And wasn't she usually the one telling him that he couldn't hurt her?! Shouldn't he be saying that now instead of running away from her?! Then again…

The cut on his neck was gone, he'd healed it at some point in the last few days, more mercy than she deserved. Maybe…maybe this wasn't such a bad idea. She had no idea how long it would take for that cure to make it to her. And just because he could heal himself didn't mean she wouldn't feel guilty about it, even if she was under a horrible curse. And the things she'd say to him, the thoughts running through her head…maybe he knew her too well, better than she knew herself. Maybe, despite the fact that she hated being away from him, it was more merciful to separate the two of them.

"Go inside," he insisted, "and stay in the back room. I'm going to seal it with a protection spell so that no one can get to you."

"Okay," she nodded in agreement. Keeping her safe above all. That at least sounded right but the panic on his face…it was just the spell giving her this terrifying feeling in the pit of her stomach, right?

"Look, I-I'll be back soon," he assured her reaching for her hands, "and then we're going to be together and we're gonna be fine." She took a deep breath and had to close her eyes to hold in the words that she wanted to snap at him. Why did he have to leave in the first place if he was going to be right back? If the vaccine failed did he intend to help Emma and Elsa? He'd be one of four people in Storybrooke unaffected by the spell, he would help them…wouldn't he? He hadn't yet.

"I promise," he breathed reaching forward for her so suddenly his embrace caught her off guard. So off guard that for the first time it just didn't feel right. She didn't like any of this, not one bit. His arm moved around her awkwardly then and she pulled away at the strange motion only to catch a glimpse of what he'd just done. He'd taken the dagger from her. Reached in and pulled it right out of her bag as he'd held her, but…it was understandable. He was insisting they be separated so that she couldn't hurt him but that would hardly do any good if once the curse hit she grabbed it herself and summoned him. It was better that he have it. And it might not feel right for the first time since he'd given it to her, but what did feel right at the moment?

Without a word she turned into the shop, closed and locked the door behind her, trying to keep her tears out of her eyes, then went right back into the back room to prepare for the protection spell like he'd told her. It was faint, but before she'd even made it back there she could see the familiar white flash of the charm race along the walls, sealing her safely into the building. Now the only thing she had to fear was herself.

She collapsed onto the back cot, her bag fell to the floor and her head dropped into her hands. She heard her body shake as she tried her hardest not to cry. Not to think, even. But that was just too frightening for even her to handle. Being alone like this, thinking of nothing, even if she was in his shop, it reminded her too much of her tower room and padded cell for comfort. And anticipating it…it was like anticipating those shots of tranquilizers! It only made it worse...

Something else! She had to think of something else! Something positive until she buckled under all the negativity again just like last time! Last time. What was worse? Not knowing what was coming? Or knowing exactly what was coming and that in a few moments she would lose herself and there was nothing she could do to be salvaged. Until help came. Until he returned to her, hopefully with the cure in hand. That was why he said he'd be back wouldn't he? He was going to get the cure and return to help her. After that she could help…

Unless he didn't let her.

It would take all night maybe even all day to get everyone cured and until then there would be violence on the streets, in homes, among families and friends. Keeping her away from that would be an instinct he had.

But…she trusted him. She always trusted him and things always worked out. If this was what he claimed she had to do, then this was what she had to do. They'd figure out what came next when "next" actually came.

A loud bang of thunder echoed through the town and she stood up in shock of it as the shelves and tables shook in its aftermath. She was protected. A protection spell meant that no one could get to her but the curse. It was coming for her. She gasped as she saw it pour into the room through the cracks in the door. Her first instinct was to run, but she'd only take a step back before she realized it was useless. There was nowhere to go. It would find her anywhere.

But even that logic couldn't keep her from holding her breath and covering her face with her hands as tight as she could. Uselessly. She felt it touch her. Like fine little grains of sand rubbing up against her skin, tickling the back of her hands, scraping between her fingers along her face, her eyelids and when she instinctively blinked to fight it away her eyes felt scratchier. No matter how hard she rubbed and batted them. Except...

It was strange. When it was over, even though she felt like there was sand in her eyes...somehow everything seemed clearer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay just hear me out before everyone goes crazy. The events in the diner (you can watch the episode yourself if you don't believe me!) played out as followed. Belle and Rumple leave and we see them walking down Main Street. Hook is already in the diner with the hat ready to go, he captures the fairies and moments later, before he can really get out of the diner Emma, Elsa, and Anna come into the shop. We saw the scene of them all walking down Main Street. Therefore, it is physically impossible for Belle and Anna not to run into one another during this time. Now, Anna...yeah I get it she's a bit aloof, but Belle is not. I believe that Anna might not have seen her as she was taking in all of Storybrooke, I don't believe for a second that Belle would have missed Anna. So I had Rumple distract her as they walked down the street. Also, that thing with the dagger at the end. That actually happened only I suspect it didn't happen on purpose, it was probably a mistake by the prop people. Some of the writers brought it up on twitter and their "explanation" for it in my mind was laughable. Why they try to over complicate things I'll never understand. But here I hope that I've come up with a decent excuse for it that is actually realistic and not...well...let's call it what it was and say stupid!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	57. Seeing Clearly

The Spell of Shattered Sight. She knew it was supposed to be terrible but somehow she felt like it was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Emotion. What a worthless unnecessary part of humanity. She could see now just how much she let emotion cloud her judgment, how it took away every bit of good sense and intelligence she'd ever had! Emotion ruined her dreams, it took away her greatness, it stole every bit of sensibility she'd ever had and replaced it with…trash. Worthless, emotion.

And she knew the cause of this emotion. The person, the thing that had forced her to feel so deeply. Rumpelstiltskin. The Dark One. This curse...it was wonderful and beautiful because for the first time in her life, for the first time since she'd met him she could see him for who he so clearly was.

A liar. A murderer. A cheater.

All the lies, the tales he told, everything he tried so hard to cover up and she just let him! She watched as he swept it under the rug and choosing not to see it. She chose to see only the things she wanted to see all because of some emotion called love! Some unproven connection he'd convinced her that they shared. Not anymore. He'd taken advantage of her, in terrible ways, ways that she didn't even think she would have allowed Gaston to get away with! At least if she had married Gaston she would have seen the world, at least she would have been royalty, had respect! If she'd married Gaston she'd at least still have her pride! She'd be so different, so unlike this lowly tarnished thing that he'd forced her to be. No more.

If Gaston had had an affair she'd have made sure he was justly punished for it in her Kingdom. The people had loved her they wouldn't have stood by and let something like that happen!

And yet she had.

Magic. That was his mistress. Her great foe! Not Milah, or Cora, or even the Wicked Witch that tortured him in sleep! It was magic. This very shop! Hadn't she ever noticed? His black bag sat on the far side of the table and made the fire in her chest burn. Black bags, magical trinkets, spells and potions, even dusty books devoted to the subject…and not one picture of his "darling" wife?! The Sweetheart that he claimed he belonged to.

Lies. All of it. He didn't care for her! Not like he cared for magic! He manipulated her, tricked her into thinking that they were in love. Why?! So he could walk down the street with her on his arm? Sex? Power? Pride?

She pushed the black bag angrily off the table and let the contents shatter on the floor. It smoked but she couldn't bring herself to care. Let him clean it up. Let him run back and nurse his whoring hobby to perfect health while she sat at home and made excuses for him.

Bastard.

The dagger was a fake of course. Anyone could see it. She could see it! She could see it and had seen it all along! But she'd been a good little housewife, repressed those logical thoughts in favor of her so called emotions. And now he'd taken the dagger from her. He'd taken it from her because he knew exactly what she'd want to do the minute this curse hit and she could see clearly! She would have summoned him with it…and it wouldn't have worked. It wouldn't have worked and she'd have had proof of it! What he didn't know was that she had proof already, proof she'd ignored because of her emotions.

She told him to let her go. Right here in this very shop. He could come up for clever excuses all he wanted but she knew that it was true and she wasn't going to let him get away with these lies any more! She could remember clearly, now that the cloud of emotion had lifted, she could remember how he'd taken them both back here after she'd first felt the effects of this wonderful spell and then she'd commanded him, with the dagger in her hand, to let her go. And he hadn't! In fact, if memory served her corrected, he'd squeezed her wrist tighter until she dropped the thing and then quickly manipulated her into another emotional state so she wouldn't notice! Protecting himself, and his magic, above all else just like always...

Coward.

That was who she'd married, who she'd been tricked into marrying. His vows were false, words meant to keep her at his side. He'd probably killed Zelena too. She'd asked him not to and yet he'd gone missing right afterwards. Oh sure she told herself he'd gone to prepare a surprise for her but he was the Dark One. He didn't need time he had his magic to save him, to always rescue him! There was time that he couldn't be accounted for. And the mix up with the tape at the station?! Magic. Clearly. Always magic. Always first and foremost in his world. Even over his son.

Neal.

Like father like son. He'd never cared for her either. Only Henry, a snide boy that came by only when he needed something and nothing else. Selfish. Like his father. Like his grandfather. Like everyone in this town! Sometimes the thought of them and one track minds, the way they fought for themselves, the way they pushed her away and left her in the dark when she fought so hard to help...

She grit her teeth together as her hands clenched into fists. She wanted to hit something. No. Some one. Anyone. They were all guilty. Every single one of them. But she was helpless to do anything to fix it. And all because of his magic.

Something in her brain snapped and she grabbed the first thing she saw, an old baseball he had sitting on a shelf, and threw it as hard as she could into the other room. Glass broke somewhere but she didn't care what she'd destroyed. Let him use his precious magic to clean it up. She wasn't his maid. Not anymore. Not ever! She was royalty. And she had no intention of ever forgetting that again! She had no intention of ever letting him forget that again! He was such a-

"What happened here?" she whipped around at the sound of his voice and found him there, behind her, examining the black bag of broken magic still smoking on the floor.

"You!" she spat looking him over. Of course he was more concerned about that. Wasn't he always?!

His eyes landed on her and widened after a moment. It was just like that day she'd stumbled upon that beautiful mirror, but she wouldn't be swayed by him this time. She wouldn't allow it. "Belle, just…just look at me and take a breath."

"I am looking at you," she snapped back, taking a step away. "Do you want to know what I see?"

"You don't want to say what you see, you'll only regret it by morning."

"I won't!" she screamed. "You put me here! You did this to me, to keep me ignorant, so I wouldn't see what you're doing! But I see Rumpelstiltskin. I see so much better than before."

"Belle, I'm sorry, but you only think what you're seeing is real. You need to come to me and let me help you. It'll be better for you if you just go to-"

She managed to pull away from him as he lunged.

Sorry. Sorry for what? For everything he'd ever done? Just like she always suspected?! It didn't matter. There weren't enough "sorrys" in the world for him. Not that he ever felt it. Him? Sorry? Never.

"No!" she argued. "You're not sorry! You're never sorry! You don't feel anything! You don't feel guilt! You're a heartless beast and I was foolish to ever forget that about you! To ever think there was more to you than-"

"Belle!" he interrupted, his tone rising with his irritation. "You're not yourself and you will regret everything that you are saying. I've seen you do it. Now I promised you'd be safe and I'm going to keep you safe even if it's from yourself."

"No!" she screamed. "The only one I'm in danger from here is you!" She took off and ran for the door. With the protection spell she didn't know if she could open it but it was worth a try. If only she could-

But suddenly he was there again, in a cloud of red magic that made her sneer as he blocked the door. She knew it. She knew he'd try something like this. It was only a matter of time until he used his magic against her!

"Don't touch me!" she screamed as he made a motion toward her. "Don't you dare ever touch me again! I swear if you do I'll-"

"If I don't you'll only say more and I won't let you live with that. You're not yourself!"

"Yes! Yes, I am myself! I'm seeing everything clearly for the first time-"

"You only think you are-"

"I know what you are now! You can't hide it anymore. I see what's truly in your heart Rumpelstiltskin and it's-NO!" she screamed as he made a lunge for her again. Only this time she didn't move fast enough. This time she felt her ankle twist because of the stupid shoes she was wearing. She gasped as his arms covered her own and forced them around her waist, restraining her. They struggled there for a moment as she simultaneously tried to break lose and yet rely on him to hold her up when her leg didn't support her own weight. She fought. Truly she did fight hard against him to get free but his grip was too tight.

"I love you," he declared, a sharp hiss in her ear as she struggled making her stomach turn so much at the thought she thought she'd be sick. "And I'm sorry for this but soon enough you will see that I'm doing this  _because_  I love you…" And before she could bite him, before she could scream at him to release her, or she could tell him that he was hurting her, the world began to blur and fade in a very familiar way.

The bastard had put her to sleep to keep the truth from her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved writing this chapter! I loved writing this chapter about ten times more than I thought I would love writing this chapter. Once I started it just didn't stop! And in the end...my goodness...it's like going back in time to Moments Missed and writing Lacey all over again! So, so, so much fun! And getting to throw Rumple into all that...okay, I just have to share this story...when I write a Moments episode I usually watch the episode first, then transcribe the scenes, then write it out. This episode though...it was late, I'd just finished writing 4x09 and I figured...Belle's asleep in 4x10 I don't have to watch it first I'll just do this and watch 4x10 in the morning. I wrote that she pushed his black bag off the table in there on a spur of the moment (pun intended) decision and when I woke up the next morning to 4x10 and get to 4x11 do you know what Rumple is doing when we first see him in his shop...do ya, do ya, do ya...he's fixing his bag! He's putting potions back into it! It fit so perfectly...I was speechless for a week! Alright not really, but I just love when things like that match up! It makes my life so much better!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	58. The Whole Truth and Nothing But

There was something against her nose. Maybe there was a fly in their room, or his head was turned wrong, or maybe he was just breathing strange or…she twitched as she felt it again and let out a small giggle as she realized exactly what the rhythmic tapping was. He was just trying to wake her up like he normally did when had she fallen asleep somewhere strange and he had to wake her up. When was the last time she slept like…the moment she opened her eyes and saw the shop it all came rushing back to her.

He wasn't breathing strange because he hadn't gone to bed with her last night. She hadn't gone to bed last night, which explained why she was sleeping on her wrong side. No. Last night had been…she couldn't even be sure 'last night' was just 'last night'! The curse, how long had it been since he'd put her to sleep? Oh, she shuddered to think of that memory, of her thoughts, her actions, and mostly everything she'd said to him. He was right: she did regret everything that she'd said.

But he was still here. Before her, suit and tie just like always, smiling down at her as if it was the beginning of a normal day and last night, at least what she assumed was last night, had never happened. In fact, he'd brought her food.

"Whoa!" she gasped, letting herself perch on her elbow as she admired the perfect gesture. It wasn't until she saw it that she realized how long it had been since she had eaten. The day the curse was cast she'd been working and certainly hadn't stopped to eat. She couldn't remember her last meal. But her husband had anticipated it, ever thoughtful as he was. How could that horrible spell so easily turn her against him? Again! "Breakfast in bed, huh?" she smiled awkwardly glancing up at him. After that she'd never say another false word or think a terrible thought about him again. Never.

Tea!

Her heart practically skipped a beat at the sight, distracting her from every thought that she'd had. He'd brought her tea! She was so thirsty! She understood now that sleeping spells did that to people. He did too and had once again made sure she was taken care of when he finally woke her. Breakfast was a nice thought but tea! Tea was the best thing he could give to her at the moment.

"Oh I have a much bigger surprise coming for you," he whispered from his place beside her, drawing her attention to his secretive smirk. A surprise. A surprise like her necklace or dinner? After last night? After this week she didn't really think she deserved a surprise. What was he planning now?

Quickly he knelt down beside her, another merciful gesture so she wouldn't have to crane her neck to see him through the glare of the morning sun. "I think it's about time we had a proper honeymoon," he suggested. A proper honeymoon? She felt herself smiling already. "How would you like to see a magical city called…New York?"

She was speechless. New York. New York City! The same New York City where Neal had lived and worked and…she would love that. She would love that so much! But the question remained…what had she done in the last week to deserve something like that? All the fighting they'd done, the way she'd been swayed by The Snow Queen's magic, after everything she'd said to him last night before he did them both a favor and put her to sleep! Then again, she'd been promising herself all week that after this was over they were going to take a couple of days at home, talk, reconnect, figure out this mess they'd made for each other. Maybe his idea was better than just going up to the cabin or sitting at home, especially now that she knew they could leave the town with their memories intact, without talismans. They would certainly be alone and far away from here so that no one could expect them to come running over if there was an emergency. Yes, she liked this plan very much.

"So…after breakfast, pack a suitcase. It's time for you to see the world." See the world. She felt like she could cry. Yes, seeing the world, was long overdue! He loved her. He made her dreams come true, he didn't stifle her like the mirror had convinced her he did, like she must have secretly always feared. She was the same person around him she'd always been only better-amplified! How could she have ever doubted him?

From across the tray of goodies he offered her his hand and she happily took it, smiling like the fool that only he could turn her into. They remained like that for a few moments happily smiling at each other before he rose and she used his hand to pull herself up and sit properly on the cot. "Careful," he whispered, "don't get light headed."

"No," she smiled releasing him. "I'm fine. No side effects just…just really _really_  thirsty!" she admitted reaching for her tea so she could stand and join him at the table. "Oh!" she gasped when she realized how short she was. Her shoes. He'd taken them off and set them by the cot for her when he'd put her to bed. Probably because…she'd twisted her ankle. She'd done that when she'd tried to run away from him yesterday. "My, uh…my ankle-"

"I took the liberty of healing that for you," he explained as she came to stand by him. "I'm sorry…I know you don't like it when I-"

"It's fine," she smiled reaching out to cover his hand with her own. After everything she'd said, everything that she'd done to him…she could forgive something like that. Probably she would have to for the rest of her life! Just like he could forgive her…couldn't he?

"Rumple…about…about what I said…last night, before you…before you put me to sleep-"

"I've already forgotten about it," he insisted firmly messing with something, papers, in his hands. "It wasn't you, Sweetheart. Only a spell. The only way I could truly protect you from yourself was to make sure you slept safely through it. I'm only sorry I didn't think of it earlier actually."

"Sorry? No, Rumple. That spell, you know just as well as I do what it does to people, I'm the one that should be apologizing."

"It  _wasn't_ you!" he insisted again. "You have nothing to feel sorry for, nothing to apologize for, nothing to be forgiven for. I understand. Now, please, eat something. It's been a while and the spell will sit better with you if you eat." Eat. Close her eyes. Pretend it never happened. They needed to talk about this, but…it could wait. It could wait until they left and had sometime alone. Until then it wouldn't hurt for her to let him believe for a little while that she really hadn't had anything to do with it.

So she sat back down at her place on the cot and pulled her breakfast toward her. "So…you said pack a bag, when do you intend for us to leave, exactly?"

"Tonight," he answered. "Just after nightfall." She blanched at the thought. Really! That fast?! At such an odd hour?! "We can catch a flight to New York first thing in the morning, be there by this time tomorrow. I know flying sounds frightening but it's really not that bad," he explained misinterpreting her expression.

"No, no, I'm not afraid it's just-"

"It's for the best we leave soon," he reasoned sitting down beside her. "If we get delayed then there's no telling how long we'll put it off for and you and I…we've put the world before us far too many times by my count. We need to do this…for us. So we can be 'us' again. So long, of course, that you agree."

Agree? How could she disagree? It was sudden but he had a point. Yes, they needed to be gone before the next emergency. And the people in this town…they needed to learn how to take care of themselves and not just come running to them every time something bad happened. Besides, memories or not there was no magic in the outside world. They both needed a little taste of the reality this world had to offer for a bit. For something that wasn't witches and snow queens and daggers and…

"Oh!" she remembered. "Wait! What about Anna?!" she asked him. "Where is she? I need to speak with her before we go. Please, we can go anywhere in the world but if I don't get to apologize to her…what?" She didn't like the way his face had fallen at her words. She'd forgotten, there were so many loose ends that needed tied up. How was everyone? How had the curse been broken? How many lives had been lost before the cure had been delivered?

"My beautiful Belle…" he sighed, reaching over and taking her hand. "I'm afraid your friend is gone."

"Gone!" she muttered shocked. "No…no she didn't-"

"No, no, not like that, she's left," he explained quickly. "She went back to Arendelle, along with her sister and fiancé of course." She…she'd gone back?! Crossed realms just like that?!

"They're…they're gone? Already? So fast?!"

"Yes and it was partially because of you!" he told her. "You're cure…it worked Belle. Perfectly. Emma got Anna there and they managed to fix a cure but they couldn't produce enough of it fast enough. The fairies and I worked together to distribute what we could, Elsa and Emma went after Ingrid and they defeated her. She rescinded what was left of her curse curing those that were unreachable but afterwards Anna brought word to her sister there was an emergency. Something they were needed at home for to take care of right away, a threat to their kingdom, and Anna herself knew the way to get back to their world was through whichever way she had originally come and they left…early this morning, just after the fairies returned to their convent to sleep off all the excitement of the nighttime festivities," he finished with a small smirk.

Night time festivities? Was that what all this was? So…Anna was gone. But, she supposed she could be happy that she was alive at least. She didn't get to apologize but…Elsa knew. She was there with her now she'd tell her the tale and how sorry she was. And Rumple…

"Wait you…you worked with the fairies?" she questioned skeptically. That seemed, impossible! Not only on his own end, but it went against everything that Mother Superior had told her yesterday, the reason she'd made her leave in the first place!

"I didn't say we had an enjoyable experience," he corrected.

"But Mother Superior didn't want you anywhere near that counter spell-"

"Perhaps not but desperate times call for desperate measures," he countered. "Belle…is…is this you talking, or the spell?"

She felt like he'd dumped a bucket of cold water over her head. Minutes. She'd promised herself she'd never think anything like what she'd thought about him last night again, promised herself she'd never doubt him again and it had been minutes before she'd done it again. She really didn't deserve a trip to New York. "Rumple…"

"Don't take it to heart," he interrupted. "You were safe and sound, asleep here, you never got the cure. The spell might take a bit more time to wear off completely. If you'll eat…" he mentioned, pushing the table her food was set upon closer, "it'll go away faster. Until then if you find those thoughts creeping up on you, know they will go away in time."

She smirked up at him as an overwhelming feeling of gratitude and happiness swept over her. The spell wasn't working on her now. Because right now she felt like she was the luckiest woman, not just in Storybrooke, but all of the world. And she couldn't wait to finally take him outside of the town line and show that to everyone they passed by. "I love you," she whispered leaning her head against his shoulder.

"And I love you, my Belle, more than anything." She beamed. She was so, so very lucky! "Now, you have a breakfast to eat, bags to pack, and research to do." She sat up and he handed her the papers he'd had in his hand. Leaflets, brochures, flyers. Pictures of skyscrapers she'd never seen, glittering lights, Christmas Trees taller than her library! "Things to do, in New York," he explained standing up. "You should pick a few things out while I'm gone."

Gone? She didn't want him to leave yet! "Wait, where are you going?" First Anna now him?!

"To make a few last minute arrangements, tie up a few loose ends before we depart. Just as I did the last time I left for New York. You remember?" How could she forget? They'd hidden the dagger, talked about Cora, and tested the potion that had resulted in her being without memories for-

It was the curse again. She wished he'd given her the cure instead of letting it leave her system naturally. Was all of Storybrooke having this problem? "I'll be back. I'll meet you at the car just after nightfall, I promise. And then…we shall see the world my darling wife." Darling wife. Good.

He turned to leave, but then, as if on second thought he turned back and leaned down to kiss her. Once. Then twice. Then a final peck before he slowly pulled away. "I love you Belle," he whispered again. "No matter what I always will."

She felt herself smile. "And I love you too," she promised.

But the moment she heard the chime of the front door she felt her smile vanish as her head fell into her hands as her mind raced, trying to take everything in all at once. She loved him. She had nothing to apologize for, nothing to feel guilty about, but…but she knew the spell that the Snow Queen had cast. Shattered Sight. It worked the same way that the mirror did. It didn't create something out of nothing. It simply picked out emotions, thoughts, ideas that already existed, and forced them to grow, forced them to become so overwhelming that they were all a person could see…but they did in fact start with a grain of truth.

She'd felt this way after the mirror incident. Guilty about what she'd done and she'd felt certain that those small thoughts that she had were nothing, she'd convinced herself that they were nothing but old fears coming to light and easily explained away but now…now she didn't know if she believed that. Twice she'd had these thoughts, twice she'd second guessed him. Small grains of truth. She couldn't remember anything about what happened when the curse was uncast, but this was how it worked, wasn't it? That was what all these small thoughts were. Echoes of a much greater dying spell…right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's still covering up for himself. I had to create a situation where all the questions that would be asked could get answered so that Belle would be compliant. I had to wrap up the curse and Anna...and his sketchiness. Best way I could do that was was by using the Spell of Shattered Sight against her again, by making her doubt if her own thoughts were hers or even just as bad as it really seemed. Not fun, but in order to stay canon and true to Belle's character I had to do what I had to do!
> 
> Thank you, thank you, thank you Judymulder for your kind and wonderful comments on the last chapter! I'm glad that despite the curse and idea behind it we all thought it was a fun chapter! Peace and Happy Reading!


	59. The Truth

It was a good day. She sat there in that shop and ate the breakfast that he'd brought to her, then decided, after checking the clock and the calendar to confirm she wasn't missing any more time than she thought she was, that it was time to follow his instructions and go home. She dug around in her purse for a moment, seeking out the keys to the car and discovered…

He'd returned the dagger. He'd taken it from her yesterday, plucked it right out of her bag, for understandable reasons. He'd been afraid that she'd summon him in her craze and frankly he'd been right, if she had it, she probably would have. But now the worst was passed and at some point while she'd been asleep he'd returned it to her. It was a wonderful thought in comparison to those she'd had while under the influence of the curse. Though she was going to have to find some place to put it while they were away that was safe. Traveling outside of Storybrooke with it would be dangerous. But then again so was leaving it inside Stroybrooke without a guard of some kind.

She'd ask him about it later, that night, before they left. She didn't like the idea of it but hiding it in the car might be one of their best options. Or instead of flying simply driving though she had to admit the thought of taking an airplane somewhere sounded fun and exciting, like an adventure. Neal had taken one before, to England. She wished she could ask him what it was like! But then again it wouldn't have mattered, knowing Neal he'd have given her a mischievous smirk and told her that she'd have to wait to see what it was like.

When she arrived at home she busied herself with tasks that she hadn't let herself do for days, weeks even! She started a load of laundry, took a shower, stripped the bed and put new sheets on it. She folded clothes, put them away in their designated places for her and for him. She got the duster out and tidied up and when she was done only that afternoon she lay down on their bed and stared up at the ceiling, taking time to day dream about what this trip would hold for them. But when she started to make a list, things that she knew they needed to talk about while they were alone she stopped, found a book, one that didn't have an ounce of magic or fairy tale in it, and read simply for the fun of taking her mind off reality.

A normal life. This must have been what if felt like to live a normal life, or what a weekend was supposed to feel like in a normal life at the very least. It was good. She could get used to it. No, she knew she wouldn't have to. Somehow she knew that normalcy like this was fleeting, that it would never come for them without a fight and all too often would always be the prelude to a new fight but she could learn to live with it if this was the pay off. Besides, this was nice after a long battle, but doing it day after day…life would get boring without a little excitement. If only the excitement didn't have to be life and death every time!

At dinner time she'd finally done everything she could do at the house and followed his instructions. When he was supposed to pack for this trip she didn't know but she decided to leave that to him. She put her packed heavy bag in the car, drove to town, and walked into the shop. Empty. Whatever it was he'd needed to do he was still gone. But it was fine, he said they wouldn't go until after dark and it was still-

"Oh!" she groaned as her suitcase suddenly popped open in her hand, its contents spilling out onto the dusty floor. Great. A lot of good the laundry had done then! She quickly plopped the baggage up onto the table and began folding and piling again, hoping that wherever they were going had a washer and dryer. But when she tried to pull the thing closed she was confronted with the exact same problem she had at the house. Stuffed full! Only this time she couldn't exactly sit on it to get it closed. Maybe she'd brought too much? No. She didn't know what the weather would be like, she'd had to bring this much. And she had to get this suit case closed even if that meant jumping up and down on it! So she did just that. She jumped up onto the counter, put her weight into it, and tried her best to get the thing to close to the point that she could get it to truly-

"Hey grandma!" she glanced up immediately at the greeting and was surprised to see Henry walk through the open curtain. Though she supposed she shouldn't be surprised. Who else in this town would call her grandma? But that name…it was a surprise all on its own! Funny, she'd always known what she was to Henry and accepted it but now that she'd actually heard it…she didn't know that she liked it! "Are you taking a trip?" he asked her looking at her suitcase.

She set herself back down on the floor, trying to appear a little more respectable, maternal at least, and not like an awkward little thing that couldn't even close a suit case! "Ah…yeah," she smiled. "Rumple's taking me to New York for our honeymoon!" she explained. Another awkward thing she really didn't want to talk to her grandson about. Grandson. Grandmother. To think in the beginning she'd thought that she needed to watch Grandfather and grandson. Right now she wished that Rumple was here just so she didn't have to feel so…old? So responsible or even grown up! She liked Henry, but it wasn't until this moment that she had to play Grandmother that she realized just how strange this entire situation was!

"But…the Snow Queen left a spell on the town line," Henry told her, looking confused. "Anyone who goes can't return. Didn't you hear?"

His warning took her by surprise. Again. "No, I...I didn't," she answered startled. Did he know that? He wasn't actually planning on…no! Of course not she was being silly, or the remnants from the spell were still effecting her. He'd never do such a thing. He was the Dark One, "the King of Loopholes" as Neal had put it, surely he had something planned. "But I'm sure he must have a way to remove it," she reasoned.

He could defeat the Snow Queen's magic, his was more powerful than hers! And he wouldn't take her across the town line knowing that she could never come back. Never see her father or Granny or even her own grandson again! He wouldn't leave knowing he could never come back to Neal and Henry! And Henry…Henry did know that didn't he?

Maybe not. He was looking upset at the prospect of it all, looking at her like he'd never see her again, looking like he was about to lose his grandfather. They wouldn't leave him. He had to know that! "Hey," she muttered, noticing the book he was carrying with him for the first time. She'd meant to reassure him but her curiosity got the better of her. He hadn't come here expecting to see them packing up to go. So why was he here? "What's wrong?" she questioned.

Henry swallowed hard, looked down at the book tucked under his arm, then set it down on the table for her with a loud plop.  _Once Upon a Time_ it read. "This book, it's got all your stories in it. It started…all this. And my mom…lots of bad things happen to her in it." So this was it. The elusive story book she'd heard so much about but never actually seen with her own two eyes. The one that had brought back Henry's memories a couple of weeks ago. It really contained all their stories? All of them from the Enchanted Forest? They truly were just characters in a book to him…which only begged the question of who he was talking about. His mom? Regina or Emma. Instinct said Emma but 'bad things' indicated Regina. In the end…did it really matter? Bad things happened to both of them in that book she was sure!

"Well that doesn't mean they'll always happen to her," she reasoned. The book was the past. It didn't mean that the future was set in stone. She was sure if she looked in that book there would be a lot of bad things that happened to his Grandfather as well. But she was living proof that people were responsible for themselves and could turn their lives around if they really wanted to. Regina included. "I…I wouldn't worry," she assured him. "She's on a much better path now." Both of them. Emma had her family and Regina…she was getting there. She knew everything that had happened in the Enchanted Forest with Regina. She would never exactly be the purest person in the world but she was much better than the woman she'd met on the road so long ago. She felt a blush begin to creep up her neck. Was that 'story' really in there too?

"Thanks Grandma," Henry smiled after a moment. It was good. She'd successfully helped her grandson, advised him in the same way her grandmother had advised her as a child. She was proud of herself. Only that strange name, her new title…?

"Yeah you know…" she thought. As much as she liked being a family informally, formally it was a little too strange for her. Fortunately she wasn't blood. She'd married into this strange group, willingly chosen to be part of it. In her mind, that crazy decision entitled her to pick a name of her own. "'Belle' is good," she decided quickly.

He laughed at it with her for a moment, but didn't seem offended which was probably as good as she could have hoped for if she'd known she was going to make that request. "Got it," he confirmed. Maybe someday they'd be more than Belle and Henry. But for now, it worked fine for her. And maybe it could work in a few other ways too?

"Okay, so…" she glanced at her suitcase, "I need another suitcase," she informed the boy always ready to do the heroic thing, "help me look?"

Henry instantly took his back pack off and set to work searching the shop for her like the gentleman she knew he was, like the man she knew his father would be proud of. Ordinarily she wouldn't let him back here without Rumpelstiltskin but he'd be fine. He'd faced far worse things than the back of this pawn shop and besides, she was there with him. What could possibly go wrong?

"You know…when you're in New York, you've gotta go to the public library." The public library? She turned to find the boy and instantly felt her nerves catch fire.

A ladder. A ladder could always go wrong.

"No offense but it blows the one here away," he commented climbing upwards. She laughed as she watched him. It would be alright. Rumple made sure the ladders were sturdy not just for her but also for Henry. He'd be fine! He didn't even think he was in danger. "It's got these lions outside of it-"

There was a crash and a bang behind her that made her shriek and jump, ready to run over and assess the damage when she realized that Henry hadn't fallen, he'd merely knocked some of the endless clutter in the shop down from a shelf. Clutter. It didn't matter how much she cleaned, she'd never get it completely straightened out. "God are you okay?" she questioned with a laugh. It was silly how ladders would always panic her like that. It was silly how jumpy she was. Especially when he was alright and had managed to at least find the suitcase she'd told him to look for. Though she supposed she couldn't help it, she felt downright giddy at the moment.

"Sorry, let me get those," he apologized. She shook her head and swallowed her laughter down in time to go back to him and check to make sure nothing was broken. It didn't appear so. Henry went to work grabbing what he could. Papers, a bowl, a doll… "He really keeps some strange things here," he commented looking the thing over. She laughed. Yes. Yes he did. And Henry didn't even really know the half of it, especially when it came to creepy dolls. In this place they were lucky they hadn't broken a magical tablet or accidentally released a genie. This all seemed to be ordinary junk, papers, and….

Her smile vanished.

Her eyes landed on a glove, like the kind used for chainmail and she felt like someone had just poured cold water over her head.

That wasn't junk.

"What's wrong?" Henry asked suddenly jumping to his feet. "I'll clean it up-"

"Ah… no! No!" she insisted, trying her hardest to sound as innocent as possible. She didn't want him to worry. But all the while she felt like she'd just seen a ghost. A very shinny ghost. A result of her own handy work. "It's…it's okay. I've got it." She reached down and picked up the glove, hoping, praying that there would be something different about it! Hoping that she'd notice it wasn't what she'd thought it was and it was harmless. She did her best to shrug it off, to act like it was nothing, but it was hard to do that through the shock and she could tell that Henry noticed. "I just uh…didn't expect to see this here."

Henry returned his attention to the pile of junk on the floor while she fought to hold in the waves of emotion crashing through her the more and more she held the glove. Not a glove. The Gauntlet. It wasn't harmless. It was to Henry but as she examined it, looked it over and realized that everything was exactly as she remember she knew that it was harmful. Just not to anyone other than herself. And to Rumpelstiltskin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so she's found the glove...brace yourself Rumbellers. One chapter at a time we're going to get through the mess that is 4B. Also, can I just take a moment to point out something incredibly stupid? She's packing in the shop. Why? Why would you pack in the shop and not at home. Why? That's like me going to the office and packing for a vacation. No reason for it...so I did my best to make up a reason why she'd be seen packing and struggling to get her bag together. Why she felt the need to take it out of the car...not even I could do that.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	60. Thoughts and Actions

She couldn't sit still. Her mind couldn't stop racing! She'd left the shop, intending to leave everything behind but when she arrived in her library she found that she'd inadvertently brought the glove with her…and her bag. Now she was sealed in the back room, alone, away from the prying eyes of any that might come or go. Her stomach was doing flip after flip as she paced back and forth trying not to look at the items she had laid out on the table. But it was useless. The dagger and the glove...they called to her no matter how much she moved around.

She was at war with herself.

 _Don't do it!_ Part of her screamed.  _It's just the remains of the curse, casting these doubts into your mind it'll fade and you'll only regret it!_

 _Do it!_ Another part of her argued.  _You know this curse and when it's broken it's broken. This isn't the remains of anything just the cleverly crafted lies of a very Dark Beast._

_You know what kind of beast you are dealing with._

She glanced over at the items again but then forced herself to look away from the table, away from the dagger but the Gauntlet…before she could think twice she'd moved forward and the Gauntlet was in her hand again. And the more she examined it the clearer it all seemed to become. There was no doubt in her mind now. It was the Gauntlet. The same one he'd brought back to her decades ago, the same one that she'd cleaned, the one he traded for her. Supposedly. Supposedly traded for her. There was no denying what it was. But what it was doing here, there, with him?! She couldn't figure that out.

Why was it here? Why?! Was it really just a big coincidence?!

She knew, things that belonged to others had a tendency to gravitate toward his shop during curses. He'd planned for it to be that way in the original curse. Everything that had been in his castle, everything that he had at one point called his own was there!

But this…logical explanation or not…it just didn't feel right! He'd traded it for her. If he claimed he felt the way he did when he made that trade then he would have considered the deal done and should have had no qualms about giving the thing up. It was a good deal. Her for…for power. That was the deal. If he gave this thing over to those women then he got her in return. It had showed her that there was more to him, that he valued her more than he did his trinkets and artifacts and his power. She had proof of it, sitting right there on the table next to the Gauntet. If he valued power more than her he never would have given her the real dagger.

The real dagger.

That was definitely a result of the mirror. Thinking of it like there were two. A real one and a fake one. Only it wasn't the mirror that had put it in her head…it had been there all along and she'd just never known it. Or repressed it.

The sun was setting. It was getting dark he should be back by now, they should be gone-over the town line where magic and curses just didn't matter, where the dagger was useless and they could just be each other. But the thought of leaving now…she didn't like it. She had no idea how long he intended to take her away for, was she really just going to let these questions sit there in her head for days possibly weeks on end?! If she was constantly wondering about it she'd go crazy but…

She could prove it. Right here and now she could prove that this was all a simple misunderstanding. She could prove that this wasn't just the real dagger but the only dagger and she could prove that the Gauntlet being back in his shop was just a coincidence of the curse and not something he'd hidden from her. She could prove it…

And possibly make things even worse between them. She knew what she'd have to do in order to prove it. It would have to be something he didn't know about, something he couldn't just listen to her request in a room so he could follow through with it.

Yes, maybe that was why she hadn't summoned him on the day she'd gone off to the Snow Queens lair because she'd known, or merely feared, what would happen if he wasn't in the room with her.

She swore she'd never do it again. There should be no need he gave this dagger to her because he trusted her, because he trusted she wouldn't abuse it. If she summoned him and he showed up then it would only go to show him just how much she didn't trust him. And now that everything was going so much better...

But things weren't better. Not if this glove was in her hand, not if she was still seriously looking at that dagger contemplating what she should do with it. What she wanted to do…that was answer enough for her. The thought of living with this while they were away, wondering for weeks on end, she knew it would be like torture. Things weren't better between them. Things were better in the world, for Anna and Elsa, but not for them. They had a lot to talk about in the days ahead, on their upcoming trip. Why not add one more thing to it.

Her hand shook as she reached out for the handle. She could feel her frown and a tremble in her chin as she held it out in front of her and read the name. It felt the same, looked the same, just like it had when Regina had given it to her a couple of weeks ago. How could so much change since then? How could she have missed something? Had she? Or was he right and this was just the spell talking. He'd given her the answer this morning. If it was the spell talking it wasn't her and he'd forgive her. If not…she preferred not to think about "if not".

"Oh, Rumple please forgive me," she cried looking at the thing and holding it out in front of her. "Dark One…" she muttered awkwardly, taking a deep breath and trying to get the words out. "Rumpelstiltskin…I…I summon thee."

A heartbeat. A breath. A tick of a clock. Then two…

Nothing happened.

She heard herself let out a sharp cry, a wail she didn't know she'd been holding back as the small room remained still and silent around her. She dropped the piece of worthless metal onto the table and covered her mouth as tears fell from her eyes and she took a step away from the dreaded fraudulent object. She shook her head as she stared at it, there was a sharp pain in her stomach like she was being torn in two! No. That would have been less painful than this.

She'd been right. It wasn't the mirror, it wasn't the spell, she'd been right all along! Maybe even from the beginning! That night they'd sat together in the diner, when little Neal had gotten his name and she'd recognized that there was something he wasn't telling her. This…this could be it.

The dagger wasn't real. His power, its true master…she had no idea where or who it was with! But she could. She had a suspicion. One grown from the same mirror that had forced her to look at the truth. The truth she'd known the night before! And if this Gauntlet was real…she could prove it, too.

She didn't think. She just did. The Gauntlet, it pointed a person to their weakness, the thing they truly loved! She knew what she wanted that Gauntlet to tell her, and despite what she feared it might say she had to know. Locked away in her tiny room she located the book that spoke of it in a flash. Read over the pages quickly and searched for what she needed. It was simple enough for magical and non-magical people to work...but she was tired of waiting, of hunting her husband and that blasted dagger down without any assistance. Magical or not she knew how to use it magically, all she needed was something that belonged to him. The magic was already built into the glove if this was the real one then it would work for her. She put the fake dagger into the hand of the glove, it surely wasn't hers so the only one it should recognize as the owner was him. She cried as she closed the fingers over it, preparing for the worst, hoping for the best. A miracle...that was what it would take. And preparation? There was no way to prepare for this.

There was someone in the library. She could hear footsteps but she didn't care to go look and see who it was. She had to do this now! Right this second. It couldn't wait.

"Show me his greatest weakness," she demanded of the thing.

There was a puff of smoke, black smoke as the world faded around her and changed. Light disappeared, the glove dissolved from her hand, the noises around her changed along with the shape of the room.

She knew this place the magic had brought her. The library clock tower. And she wasn't alone. Hook and Rumple don't seem to notice her there behind them. Neither did Emma and Snow standing there by the elevator. Her heart raced as she took in the details of the scene the Gauntlet had presented her with.

A heart, held firmly in his hand.

A dagger, the real one, magic, his true weakness, the thing he loved most, lying there unprotected on the table next to him.

"I've waited too long for this," she watched him tell the women, who must have been the ones she'd heard earlier. "And I'm too close!" Emma made a motion with her arm but was too late, he'd already countered her spell with one of his own, freezing her friends where they stood.

"Well maybe not everything has went to plan," he explained glancing over at Hook, who almost looked sick and scared at what was happening. He didn't move. Why didn't he move?!

Because of the heart. The answer was obvious. The heart was his.

"But this next part…I'm really gonna enjoy," the Dark One hissed at him.

Hook saw her, standing there in the shadows. He opened his mouth to say something but before he could he cried out in pain as Rumpelstiltskin squeezed the heart in the palm of his hand, bringing him to his knees!

It was cruel. A horrible, terrible, grotesque act! She didn't think. She didn't stop to think what was right or wrong, what was fair or unfair. She simply emerged from the shadows grabbed the dagger, the real one, in her hand and hoped with every fiber of her being she had enough in her to stop him! Because if she didn't no one else could.

"I don't understand," she heard him breathe as she tried to find the words she wanted to say what she needed to say! Hook glanced up at him, then over to her as she realized that it had worked. Hook wasn't dead. His heart wasn't dust. He couldn't crush it. Apparently she didn't need words at all, just a strong will. "Why can't…?"

"Because I commanded you not to!" she screamed at him.

He was surprised when he turned to find her there. Surprised and scared but she couldn't find it in her heart to care what he felt right now because he certainly hadn't thought to consider what she felt in all of this! Her heart was racing, pounding so fast she thought she might have a heart attack on the spot, but she couldn't. She wasn't done here yet.

"Drop the heart," she ordered glancing at it in his palm. It rolled out of his fingers at her command. Hook caught it and held it in his own hand, looking relieved but she couldn't be. Not yet!

"Now release everyone!" she ordered. She felt like she was talking to a child. But a child with powers like his…a child wouldn't have known better. An adult would have…he knew better! And he'd done…all this! He'd known this was wrong, killing Hook, lying to her, stopping Emma…and he'd done it all anyway. He'd convinced her to look away as he orchestrated all of this.

He was reluctant. She could see it in his eyes and in the unnatural way his body seemed to be trying to fight off her commands. He'd been caught and he was still unwilling to do the right thing! Maybe the Spell of Shattered Sight was a blessing in disguise. Her emotions were a problem. And without them to cloud her judgment…she was finally seeing clearly! She only hoped that she continued to see this well long enough to do what needed done.

Emma and Mary Margaret stumbled by the elevator, released from their spell, above her a cloud of purple blue, a perfect copy of the nighttime sky she hadn't noticed until now shimmered above her with energy like electricity before magic swirled and gathered and landed there on the same little crate the dagger had been in the form of…the hat!

She felt more tears well in her eyes as she looked at it. She lost her breath and let anger consume her because…he'd had it the entire time! All along she'd thought he'd been trying to stay out of it but the reality was…he'd been working against her! And that meant all this time he'd let her go on thinking that the hat…that Anna!

No one in her life had ever betrayed her like this! This surpassed every lie she'd ever been told, every burden ever placed on her shoulders! This made her father's stunt to remove her memories look like a joke!

Emotions were worthless. They'd convinced her to close her eyes and trust a monster.

"And now…now you can take us to the town line," she informed him, her hand so tight around the dagger it hurt, "because we need to be alone for what comes next." He looked guilty, he looked scared but she wouldn't let it affect her. By the time he waved his hand and allowed the smoke to take them she'd already decided his fate. No one was safe around him and there was only thing that she could do to keep the monster away from Neal's son.

Banishment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter hasn't really been edited but this A/N has because...sigh. ::Beats head against a table:: Yes we saw the Gauntlet work in 5A and it was nothing like this, but if I have it work like that did then...what? Belle finds the real dagger and sneakily follows him around Storybrooke without him noticing? Without Rumple seeing in that teeny tiny clock tower that she was right behind him fuming the entire time?! Stupidest, biggest plot hole ever. So...I've adjusted to accommodate that. I made it usable for people without magic at hand, like Guin and Lancelot, and people who do have it in hand, like Belle. If I don't none of this makes any sense.
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	61. An Eye For An Eye

The punishment should always fit the crime. And his crime? There were too many to list, more than she could ever possibly know or understand though she had tried to and probably would continue to try to over and over again! But the one she felt right now, the one that cut deeper than all of the others was the lies. He'd married her and manipulated her, kept her weak and ignorant, let her live with guilt! He'd separated himself from her when it was convenient for him, banished her from his life and lived in solitude with his magical mistress, the dagger that she finally held in her hand. The punishment should always fit the crime. Banishment for banishment. Those who left the town could never come back. It was the only way to keep her promise to Neal, his son, the only one who had never lied to her as he had. She couldn't let him down. She had to keep Henry safe!

"Belle," he reasoned the moment they arrived there on that endless dark road, "what are you doing?" he questioned.

Wasn't it obvious? She was doing what she had to do. No matter how much it hurt because what he'd done hurt more! She held the dagger between them. Every motion he made to come near her she willed him away. She didn't want his excuses right now. She didn't think she ever would after this.

"I'm finally facing the truth," she informed him as he looked wearily between her and the dagger.

"No, please…put the dagger down and let me explain."

"No!" she shouted back. She wouldn't let him treat her like a child! Not after everything he'd done! "It's my turn to talk!" She was in tears already. She hadn't known that something like this was brewing so deep within her until the curse, she didn't know how much of what she really felt she'd kept from him so that  _he_ wouldn't feel hurt or guilty until this very minute. But she was done with that. If this was the end and it most certainly was, it was going to be a clean break! He was finally going to hear it, whether it was good for him or not. He owed her at least that much.

"Do you remember the first time you saved my life?" He nodded, like he wanted her to believe that he did, that he had treasured the memory as she had, but right now…she wasn't convinced any more that he did. She saw no recognition in his eyes. "You traded for me," she reminded him. "And…and I thought I saw something in you…something good," she recalled, remembering the delicate way that he'd brought her to the castle and healed her injuries even through his false angry demeanor. She couldn't even be sure that he hadn't been angry anymore. Maybe Neal was right and she did have Stockholm syndrome. Maybe she'd just seen what she wanted to, what she'd needed to, in order to survive.

"Well," she went on, "I found that Gauntlet today!" He looked shocked, like she'd just stolen his breath or taken the land right out from under his boots as he recoiled and she still couldn't bring herself to care! "And that's when I...when I finally realized that all the signs I've been seeing…were correct. You'd never give up power for me, Rumple. You never have…and you never will!" she cried, her voice breaking because the words just tasted like poison in her mouth!

"You…you-you don't understand!" he argued, making a lunge for her.

She quickly held up the dagger again. Her only hope for a defense to get through this. "No…" she understood, "you told me that Gauntlet could lead you to someone's weakness…to the thing they loved the most," as their weakness so often was, just as he'd once promised her that she was his greatest weakness. And his greatest strength. Lies. All of it. Even from the beginning. "Well you know where it led me Rumple? To the real dagger!" His mistress. His first thought every morning and every night, the one he ran to when he couldn't sleep and the thing he counted on to help him solve all his problems!

She'd never be able to do that for him, she never had, because he'd never let go enough to truly let her try. She'd always be second best next to magic and she just wouldn't stand for that.

"You're true love," she accused, "is your power!"

"I like the power," he admitted too quickly making her feel as though he'd just slapped her. More lies. 'Like' didn't even begin to describe it! "But there's nothing wrong with power! Not when it means that I…" but he'd caught his mistake before she did and she felt her mind repel him away from her as more tears pooled in her eyes. "That we," he corrected uselessly, "that we can have it all!"

Have it all?! All of what! They'd never talked about 'having it all'! Never! Not once! What they had talked about was having each other, living side by side and being content with just the two of them and nothing more.

One of them had been truthful. She'd bared her soul to him in those moments and what he'd fed her back…more lies. This entire life they'd built together was built on quicksand! And it was sinking fast.

"I just wanted you," she repeated.

All she'd wanted when she woke up and went to bed was him. All she wanted to sooth her nightmares was him and when things went wrong she just wanted to know that he'd always be there for her.

But he couldn't. Not when he ran away to magic every time opportunity snapped it's fingers.

"I wanted to be chosen…I…I tried to be everything for you, Rumple! But I wasn't…and I…I lost my way trying to help you find yourself."

Every step, every move she'd made in the last year and a half, ever since she'd gotten out of that asylum, ever since Regina had put her in that tower…it had all been for him. She didn't know who she was anymore. She didn't know how to exist without him in her life, it had been so long since she'd tried!

"But not anymore!" she realized. She remembered who she'd been before she'd met him, who she'd dreamed she could be and if there was anything that he had done for her it was to give her the courage to be that person again. A hero always helped others. She had to help Henry now. And Hook, and Emma, and all the rest. She had to do what she should have done years ago and destroy the beast for the greater good. She'd tried so hard to save him too. But he didn't want to be saved. And he wasn't going to take her or anyone else down with him. Especially not Henry.

"Please, Belle, I-I'll make it up to you," he wept, but it wasn't out of guilt, it was out of fear. He was not asking for forgiveness, not like she had, he was merely making excuses. She shouldn't be surprised. A desire to be forgiven came from repentance, which came from remorse and regret. As long as he stood there making excuses, he'd never know either.

"I've changed once before I can do it again!" he claimed.

"You've never changed," she pointed out and for a moment she felt true pity for him because he'd didn't even see how lost he was! He'd told so many lies…he couldn't even keep them straight anymore.

"Please," he pleaded reaching for her cheek.

"No!" she cried pushing him away. "It's too late."

They'd been there before, once a long time ago when she'd first learned that he was using magic behind her back. The right words, a careful phrase, and a delicate touch...he'd gotten her back then because she couldn't stand to think of living a life of regret, but now…so much had changed now! There was more to worry about besides regret, more than her life at stake. They'd been here before and she'd forgiven him trusting they had work to do and it wouldn't happen again. She'd done the work, and yet it had happened again. He'd let it. They were just words! Careful, manipulating words and despite what her broken heart screamed at her she had to ignore the pleas because she just couldn't believe them anymore. She couldn't trust him. Not with her life, or Hook's, or Emma's, not with Henry's. She knew how this had to end, how to keep everyone safe. There was only one way and though it hurt in more ways than one, it was the right thing.

"Once," she cried continuing to push him closer and closer to true reality, "I saw the man behind the beast." And it wasn't an illusion. She refused to think, refused to believe that it had all been a lie that she hadn't seen some part of him that the rest of the world hadn't. But that was the problem. The mask he wore now, was that of a man. And now she could see, he wore it for her benefit only. It wasn't enough. "But now there's only a beast."

He might have understood then, might have realized exactly what he'd done. But she just couldn't trust that flash in his eyes anymore. She didn't really know him that well.

So with a deep breath she drew the dagger up between them, where it had always truly been, and found her courage. She thought of her promise to Neal…and of Henry. It gave her the strength she needed. "Rumpelstiltskin…I command you to leave Storybrooke!" she ordered pushing him closer and closer to that orange line.

He glanced behind him, judged the distance and turned back to look at her with scared eyes. "Belle, no, please!" he begged. "I won't be able to come back!"

So he had known all along. He had intended to take her over the line without telling her she'd never be able to see her father or Henry or even Neal again. He'd have placed them both in exile without her permission. The punishment fit the crime.

"I know," she cried.

"I don't, I don't want to lose you," he explained but every word just tore her heart further and further from her chest. Those words didn't roll of his tongue as easy as they once had and she didn't believe them anymore. It wasn't her he feared losing right now. Crossing the town line…she was stripping him of his magic. That was his greatest fear.

"You already have," she promised as tears fell from her eyes.

"Belle…" he cried, guilt and hurt finally surfacing in his face. Maybe he'd understand now, the consequences of his actions. Maybe she meant just enough to him to realize how he'd taken the best chance at life he'd ever had…and thrown the blessing away for a curse. "Please…I'm afraid," he whispered at the line. "Belle…" but she couldn't stop now not even if she wanted to…and she did not. He crossed the line one foot at a time, the magic around him shimmered and she turned her back on him so that she didn't have to bear the sight of what she'd done. He'd made this hard enough on the both of them. The sight of him there at the line wasn't going to make it any better.

"Belle," she heard him weep across the line. She wanted so badly to turn and do something, she nearly did but she stopped herself. Instead she finally let herself cry without restraint. "Belle!" he shouted. A quick glance she hadn't planned on told her he was on his knees and she quickly looked away and covered her mouth as he called out for her again.

It would be so easy. The perfect scenario for her to do as he'd wanted all along and just cross that line. Without magic…he wouldn't have a choice in the matter. He would choose her by default and that might be worse than what he'd actually done, than all the lies that he'd told himself about how he felt about her. "Belle please!" She didn't look back. She took one slow timid step after another and started walking away from the scene of the crime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...this is not the end of the fiction. I thought long and hard about possibly ending it here and now but there was one last chapter to write and I felt it fit better here than as Chapter 1 of ME&U. I know this scene is painful, I think that she acted rashly and hot-headedly and I think she will come to see that but in other ways I also think that she had no choice. I really tried to emphasize that by doing this she feels she's protecting Henry and that is really what is driving her here. Your thoughts are always welcome!
> 
> Peace and Happy Reading!


	62. The Bitter End

She started walking. And walking. And walking. And walking.

It was cold. Her cheeks were numb and stiff from where her tears had fallen and left a thin salty coat over her skin. Her jacket was hardly any use at all. She'd tucked her arms around her chest but it was no good. The chill that was in the air was nothing compared to the chill that was radiating from within her body. It was coming from her heart.

She didn't want to see anyone, she didn't want to be touched or looked at, she was certain that she would come apart at the smallest glance or tiniest look. But most importantly of all she was afraid of what would happen if she stopped walking, if she gave up the familiar rhythm of one foot in front of the other.

On and on she walked. Until her feet were sore, until she was sure she had blisters, until she felt like one had burst and was bleeding. She cried. She cried a lot. She cried until she couldn't cry anymore, then she would have some flash, some thought of a memory that had once been happy but now only seemed dark and tainted somehow because she wasn't sure she could ever believe anything that he'd told her, anything he'd ever done for her, or anything they'd ever done together had truly been good. When she remembered that, she started to cry once more until her cheeks were soaked through again.

Eventually his cries faded. The town line she was sure had disappeared behind her miles ago. The minutes ticked on to hours as she walked and she couldn't bring herself to care until she got home.

Home.

Still home. She'd wandered all night. The sun was coming up when she picked up her head and realized that she'd brought herself right back to the same place that she'd called home for too long to remember. His home. Only…

Only it didn't feel like his home. It didn't feel like their home. And as she stared at the steps, the porch, the door, she wondered if it ever had felt like their home.

It felt like her home. Hers. Not his. Since the curse had broken she'd used it more than he had. From the moment she first stepped inside she'd taken control of it, cleaning and organizing. Once she'd moved out she'd missed it. After Lacey, when he'd been away in Neverland she'd stayed here, after the new curse had been cast she'd lived here, after they'd married…

Well, she'd certainly spent more time here than she had during their short marriage. At least now she knew why.

She had the paperwork. That was one of the few things that they'd done in their time together. It belonged to her. All of it. She'd never really thought to consider that but the house, the car, the money, the library, even the shop, it all belonged to her. And though she'd never wanted it she was surprised by the thought that it felt like it belonged to her. All of it.

Before she could let herself consider just what that meant she found herself walking up the steps to the front door. She had no keys. They were in her bag, which was still back at the library, and she supposed that she could go back there, go live in the apartment above the library like she had last time but…she just couldn't.

She dropped down to her knees on the porch, moved to grab a couple of bobby pins from her hair and-

She was still holding the dagger. This useless, worthless, piece of…

It didn't matter now. What it was, what it had been. He was gone. Forever gone. It was just a worthless ornate thing now, the last piece of her- _its_  Dark One.

He'd never been hers. Only the daggers.

Her muscles cramped as she dropped it next to her and held back a sob by picking up where she'd left off. She grabbed the bobby pins from her hair and allowed Lacey to do what she did best and unlock the door for her so she didn't have to break one of the windows.

Last time she'd been here without him, when he'd been in Neverland and when Zelena held him captive, it felt like the house was a shadow of who he was. That little bit was still there but now it felt like hers! Just as it had outside. Her books were on the tables. Her coats hung from the hooks. Her belongings were scattered around just as much if not more than his. Yes. The house, the car, the shop…it was all hers. Maybe that was right. Maybe it was good.

Her stomach, her bones, her muscles, her body ached as she wandered through the house, locking the door only as a second thought. She'd been here before. She knew this feeling because she'd felt it before. This. Right now. Just once before. The day he'd told her to leave the castle. The day she'd told him that his choice had left him with nothing but an empty heart.

It was strange. She felt like she should have felt it a million times before now. After the mines. The day he'd left for Neverland. The day he'd died…

But nothing cut deeper than betrayal. Nothing stung more than having the last word. Maybe she should have realized that before now.

She left the dagger on the table by the door. Useless as it was she'd decide what to do with it later. If she wanted to do anything at all. The doorway to the basement stared her down, dared her to stare back at it, but she just wouldn't. That would be the one place in this house that didn't feel like hers, that was clearly his, the place he could escape to his magic and leave the rest of the world, including her, behind. As she climbed up the stairs the first thought was to burn everything in it. The basement was made of stone it would hold up but the shelves, the wheel, the magic, the books-

No, she couldn't let anything happen to it. Much as she hated it, they might come in handy sometime. She could take the books. Give the magic to Regina. Now she understood just why he hadn't wanted her to dabble in it. After what had happened to him, the last thing that she wanted was to ever go near any of it again!

Their bedroom-

Her bedroom.

She was glad she'd changed the linens before she'd gone back to town. She was happy she'd thought to do the laundry.

But she felt her chin tremble at that thought and felt herself start to cry as she began to undress. In the past she would have convinced herself that if she kept moving it would be better, that she could survive. Now she knew better. She didn't even try to hide her pain because she knew it was useless.

Endings were rarely happy. Difficult. Sad. Horrible. Painful. That was what made up her endings. And the sad thing was that the more difficult the ending, the more difficult the beginning. Everything was clean. Ready for a fresh start she didn't know she'd be experiencing the last time she'd been back. It had been difficult when she'd left the castle decades ago too. That beginning had been…terrible.

But she'd done it to herself. She'd all but given up. Stopped eating. Stopped sleeping. Forgot about shelter. Forgot about water. She'd left behind every will to live she ever had!

She couldn't do it this time.

She wouldn't.

She was still crying by the time the sun began to lighten the sky and she sat down on her bed in a nightgown. She didn't know when she'd gotten ready for bed, but she knew when she'd decided that she couldn't lose herself again like she had last time. It was the moment she moved to cover her face in a sob and her eyes landed on the band she wore on her left hand. Her wedding ring. The ring that he'd given her only days ago when they'd stood at that well and professed their love for one another. She didn't know it was possible for life to change as fast as it had. Silly really. When had life ever changed slowly for her?!

Never.

Not once.

Not since she'd met-

He was still her husband. She was still Belle Gold. He was still her past. As much as she didn't want to, as much as she felt like she shouldn't, she still loved him. Only now…she just didn't know if she could believe that he'd ever loved her like this. If he ever felt anything close to what she felt for him! He'd cried as he'd gone over that line. But had it been for her? Or for the Dark One? He was human now. Out there, somewhere. He was mortal and had the same chance at life that she had only, maybe his chance was a little better.

And he…he could do this. He had once before. Then he'd had Neal to keep him going. Now…he'd find something. He always had been looking for something. There was a time she'd convinced herself it was her. But if she'd been enough then he wouldn't have been searching for more, whatever more was. Maybe he could find whatever it was that really mattered to him out there, without her. Clever as he was he could start over again. She still believed that he could do anything he set his mind too. She just hoped, and feared, that all this would be worth it in the end.

But she wasn't like him. She'd cherished him and him alone above all else in this world. She had a long road ahead of her. It was going to be a long journey to find out who she was without him. If she was going to survive this it would take all of her strength, all of her energy, every bit of courage that she had and that included the bit that he'd instilled in her. And it would require a fresh start. A clean, thorough, undeniable break. She had to move from her past to her future. And she had to do it now.

So as the sunlight crept once more into her bedroom, she managed to push herself up. She made her way to the jewelry box that she kept on her dresser. With a shaking hand she removed her wedding band, dropped it into one of the slots alone, away from her other meaningless trinkets, and closed the lid on her past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, welcome to the end. I really hope that you enjoyed this story! The next story in the Moments series is Moments Experienced and Unexperienced and you can find it by simply heading over to my profile. It begins with the morning after Belle banishes Rumpelstiltskin in "Heroes and Villains" and ends with the Dark Curse being removed from Rumpelstiltskin in "Operation Mongoose". 
> 
> Of course if you liked what you read please leave kudos or a comment! I love getting those wonderful little gems in my inbox and communicating with the people reading on a personal level. And if you want to read more please check out any of the other fictions in the Moments Series. For more information on the Moments Series, upcoming fictions, posting and publishing dates, or a reading order check out my profile for more details. Peace and Happy Reading!


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